Album review by Lucas Bell
2024 is the year of the Cvlt. After putting on probably one of the most well managed one day festivals I’ve ever been to, Aussie metalcore quintet Alpha Wolf continue their run of success, with probably their most ambitious project yet. Half Living Things is a self produced celebration of what Alpha Wolf have crafted to this point in their careers. Making fun, heavy tunes that make me want to throw my friends through walls, and expect them to do the same to me.
While speaking about the new album, lead vocalist Lochie Keogh mentioned that “There can be no inner conflict without the constant tug of war between desire and disdain, the things you want versus the things you need, or the things that make you feel alive against the parts of it that do not. You cannot grow new parts without leaving the dead ones behind. You cannot be settled until you have truly known the opposite. Find out what makes you tick and just keep running around the clock until you’re happy enough to die.” It’s truly a sentiment of the album, and a place where I feel I am currently in my life, as this album hit me in ways I did not expect at all.
Songs like ‘Bring Back the Noise’, ‘Sucks 2 Suck’, and ‘Whenever You’re Ready’ have already dropped as singles, and these aren’t even the best songs on the record. They are songs to give you a taste at what they’ve been cooking up in the kitchen. I won’t touch much on those three songs in the review, other than they all freaking rule.
The majority of the album are punchy, fast, quick metalcore songs. ‘Bring Back the Noise’ is just a fast, heavy track, and a killer album opener. Definitely a tone setter of what is to come, which very quickly leads into ‘Double-Edge Demise’, one of many songs I feel I could throw myself through a wall to. ‘Haunter’ is a song purely to slam into your friends to. And that’s okay. I actually got to see the live debut of this track at Cvltfest back in February, and if you think the drums on this song punch hard on the studio recording, then you’re in for an assault when you see it live. ‘Sucks 2 Suck’ was a song I wasn’t expecting to slap as hard as it did the first time I heard it, but the Ice-T feature really sent it over the edge for me, in the best way. Hearing too that Ice was given no reference point for the song, and just riffed the verse is iconic.
‘Whenever You’re Ready’ is the true heartbreaker of the record. The song is a slower, beautiful, more melodic piece of music in a wave of face melting metcore at its peak. Speaking on the track, guitarist Scottie Simpson said “It’s about losing someone you love,” “Musically, it’s a different song for us. We’re pushing boundaries and exploring new directions.” ‘Pretty Boy’ is definitely another song I feel pushes the envelope as to what metalcore can be. The song sits in this sick middle ground of the newer sound bands like Alpha Wolf and such have carved into the scene, but really gone the route of the huge chorus like a 2015-present Parkway Drive. This song definitely will be a song that might not get a lot of love at first, but the love will definitely creep up to be considered a scene classic.
The next couple of songs (‘Mangekyō’, ‘A Terrible Day For Rain’, ‘Feign’) fall back into that more industrial guitar driven metalcore sound I feel Alpha Wolf have been known for. Much like ‘Haunter’, these songs are purely mosh tracks, distilled down into their purest form. The guitars and drums absolutely slam, specifically on ‘Mangekyō’, and the breakdown for ‘Mangekyō’ is definitely gonna be huge if this is thrown into the live rotation.
Ask much as the band is cohesive across the record, I gotta shout out drummer Mitch Fogarty. Especially for songs like ‘Garden Of Eyes’. The kick drums are so pulsating and heavy, that at times, I feel like I’m getting slammed directly into the brain by his foot. As someone that for years lived in the mosh, it feels almost comforting having beastly drumming like that completely destroy my eardrums in the best possible way. Title track ‘Half Living Things’ is another top tier track, and if it hasn’t been considered, needs to be a single. This track rules, piecing together some iconic riffs, a hectic rhythm section, and all the sound that shows why Alpha Wolf are truly one of the best metalcore acts on the planet today.
And this all comes to a head, with the final track on the record, ‘Ambivalence’. This song shows to me truly what the band is capable of. Clocking in at almost five and a half minutes, the song has a sense of epicness to it, in that the scale of the track feels absolutely massive. It also shows that Alpha Wolf are more than the metalcore sound, incorporating what feels like a sense of progressivism in the tune, which absolutely titlates me as a fan of that style of music. This is the song that feels like an incredible closure to a record, and what I can only anticipate as one hell of a live song.
Alpha Wolf are on the precipice of something huge. I’ve said for years that they could be the next big breakout Australian metalcore act, stepping into the shoes of Parkway Drive at a global level. But this album proves they aren’t the next Parkway Drive.
They are the first Alpha Wolf. The Cvlt is about to take over the world.
Half Living Things is out on 5 April.
Rating – 9.5/10
Favorite Tracks – ‘Ambivalence’, ‘Pretty Boy’, ‘Garden Of Eyes’
