GREY WOLVES appreciation thread

[Minus1]

Punishment...is what I deserve for not hearing this until my 64th year.

9 tracks / 45min. 1992.

I do love these Tesco packages - cards / plastic bag, etc.

I suppose this is/was the first vinyl release. I'm loving how the tracks segue, and how they feel of a piece. This is powerful shit. It's beautifully layered yet filthy sounding. "Harsh and bleak" said HongKongGoolagong in the excellent OP of this thread.

I like that the vocals / samples are mysterious and indiscernible, mostly.

A piano singalong to end side 1? 😂 But they make it sound scary.

And then something lush to open side 2. Which devolves into a sinister ambiance. Fucking brilliant. Destination Death - what a centerpiece!

That segues into a related / sister piece - this album arc is incredible.

Genocide Organ on downers?

Track 7 goes on for much longer than what discogs etc states.

Track 8 continues the bleak ambient vibe. Fucking wonderful. I'm an instant Grey Wolves fanboy.

So side 2 of this vinyl is quite different from side 1, but it all fits and flows fantastically.

Track 9 ends this superb album in metronomic / squealing style.

Fuuuuck!!

[Minus1]

Catholic Priests Fuck Children...on a Monday morning. (It's Family Day!)

8 tracks. 38min. 1996.

Now here's an album title. These people have balls.

A quite vocal-heavy track starts the proceedings again.

Vocals are much clearer here. Much more in-my-face.

Yet things get rather quiet 3 tracks in. Someone is hiding in the corridors.

The sound here is much clearer/crisper than Punishment. Less haze.

In fact a sort of ambience dominates the middle of this album.

The album title/artwork are legendary. I expected the sound to be The Anti-Christ Itself. No!

This is good, but it cannot compete with Punishment.

The last half of the album just kind of went by without making a big impression on me. Perhaps my expectations for this were all skewed.

I think it's funny that so many reviews describe this as abrasive, PE, horrifying, etc. Did we hear the same album?

Fuckit...only 38min...I'll listen again...louder!

Don't get me wrong - this is a good album, very layered, I like it, I'll play it again.

But this is a largely ambient, quiet thing. It ain't what most reviews say it is. 😂

[Krigsverk]

I agree with you - CPFC has nothing on Punishment which probably is my fave GW release.
I noticed you prefer CD format, but another real highlight in their discography is the Pure Hatred vinyl (the whole thing is on youtube if you want to hear it).

There is also a lot of great collab albums to explore once you are finished with your current bunch of wolves... Ramraiding the abyss is highly recommended!

[Minus1]

Cool, thanks.

I think my biggest take-away so far is...I thought GW were A, when in fact they are B. I have to realign what I expected. That's on me.

I swear my mother might have enjoyed three-quarters of CPFC. 😂

This is not a dis! Punishment is fantastic. CPFC is good. These guys are very creative and smart.

But somehow there's a disconnect between what I read about GW and what I have heard so far.

I can't wait for Division tonight.

[NightsAquarium]

The fairly trite and repetitive industrial agitprop motifs of the Wolves' imagery do a lot to obscure how adventurous and downright strange their actual music is. Despite them usually being paired with Genocide Organ and Con-Dom as a sort of holy trinity of post-Come Org. / Broken Flag PE, I always saw them as having more in common with (the equally willful and experimental) Controlled Bleeding, or as a much cruder, more gutter-minded answer to Coil.

I think my biggest take-away so far is...I thought GW were A, when in fact they are B. I have to realign what I expected. That's on me.

But somehow there's a disconnect between what I read about GW and what I have heard so far.

I highly recommend getting Blood & Sand next, for a further taste of the band's stranger and less genre-adherent impulses.

[Minus1]

And I just finished perusing this entire thread. There's a lot of politics. Obviously the artwork / cards cause debate. But so far, for me, the sound isn't making me think "Oh they are Left, Right, whatever."

I see that Division...divides. 😂 And Exit Strategy was a letdown for many, while Exit Wounds wasn't.

[prelapsus]

The fairly trite and repetitive industrial agitprop motifs of the Wolves' imagery do a lot to obscure how adventurous and downright strange their actual music is. Despite them usually being paired with Genocide Organ and Con-Dom as a sort of holy trinity of post-Come Org. / Broken Flag PE, I always saw them as having more in common with (the equally willful and experimental) Controlled Bleeding, or as a much cruder, more gutter-minded answer to Coil.

I think my biggest take-away so far is...I thought GW were A, when in fact they are B. I have to realign what I expected. That's on me.

But somehow there's a disconnect between what I read about GW and what I have heard so far.

I highly recommend getting Blood & Sand next, for a further taste of the band's stranger and less genre-adherent impulses.

Yeah I agree with this. My first impression of Catholic Priests... was being surprised by how fresh it sounds. It doesn't sound dated at all to me and there is a lot of variation across the record.

Cruder Coil is a good analogue actually, particularly as they did move away from PE and experiment more.

[Minus1]

Division. 12 tracks. 62min. 2003.

Yet another vocal-heavy start. Is that a GW thing?

I like longer albums. I'm aware that many are fans of a 30-40min hit. But I like things stretched out. (I suppose bathtub listening has a lot to do with it.) 😂

Well, I'm already enjoying this more than the baffling CPFC. (Yes, in the hours since, I decided that I'm baffled.) This has an edge. It's weird and pissed off.

The art cards for this one are extensive, and maybe a bit confusing.

This is kicking my ass. I'm very impressed with the ever-changing sounds beneath the voicings. The samples are impressive to me so far. I keep reading about "annoying mp3" stuff in reviews. Huh? 🤷🏼�♂️

(I never did mp3, so wtf do I know?) 😂

I'm happy with the lo-fi feel to a lot of the sounds.

In fact the ever-changing voicings / samples is disorienting - in a good way! (Did this aspect bother some fans?) Nothing lingers here. It's hard to grasp this. Which I like. 😂

Some real pace-shifts from track to track. Mid-album and I haven't disengaged for 1 second. This thing grabbed me by the balls and didn't let go. Is it possible that this album is vastly under-rated amongst GW fans?

I really love Cities In Flames. That's...what it sounds like.

I know star-ratings is a bore, but I think 5 for Punishment, 3 for CPFC, and maybe 4 for this...so far...

Such wonderful variety. I don't hear a track repeating another track. A very deliberate feel. No fucking about. No meandering / noodling. An immediate mood.

I'm clamouring for a GW interview around this. I want to dig into this.

Blood Lover Blood Hater fucking scares me.

With Brutal Force...doesn't. 😂 It's almost light and fluffy. The simplest thing here. But, perhaps a needed breather?

Yeah. I'm Sick is...sick. This album is strong right to the end. A river of filth below the sick man, threatening to engulf him.

Wtf is I.T.A.? It sure is fuuuucked uuup, whatever it is!!

Fuckit. 5 stars. Maybe I like this as much as, or more than Punishment. An intensely satisfying ride. I need a drink.

This might be GW's misunderstood masterpiece.

[moozz]

Division. 12 tracks. 62min. 2003.

...

Some real pace-shifts from track to track. Mid-album and I haven't disengaged for 1 second. This thing grabbed me by the balls and didn't let go. Is it possible that this album is vastly under-rated amongst GW fans?

I never got the feeling Division was underrated. Maybe those not liking it just finding it somehow especially off-putting? I like Division a lot, probably my fave Grey Wolves album.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

this was the first full length CD album of the project. I recall years ago, when germans explained, that over there, for power electronics and industrial, it really is the good vinyl album that puts the band on the map, so to say. Of course it was the 90's, but still today, it may be somewhat valid.
I think all the former LP's have such a strong packaging making that first impact of "wow! holy shit!". With Division, it was 2003, when you already had new generation of power electronics/industrial noise/heavy electronics in full force, plus, scene was way more focused on what was happening in the USA. People over there mentioned that in 90's all the euro tough guy electronics was top seller, and early 00's was all about new wave of american noise.

I would think all this play role how Division may be appreciated, but it rarely is mentioned as absolute top release, even among fans.

[Minus1]

Exit Strategy. 9 tracks. 41min. 2017.

Well I'm a bit sad. This was the last one. But I'll fill in the gaping holes in my GW collection. Punishment and Division are simply too good to not investigate more.

It's 5am, the volume is low. But...er...this is different, innit? I applaud GW in 2017 for not trying to be 1990s.

It's shiny, spacey, low key...

Wait...this was the next album after Division? A 14 year gap?

Dystopian. That's the word.

I know I like this. But I also know that this one will take more time.

That's all I got. 😂