“As the songs started to fall into place, we decided to do something we hadn’t done in many years,” explains the band. “For the last decade we’ve recorded, produced, and mixed our albums ourselves. This time we wanted to work with someone from outside the band whose work we respect and who we felt would understand what WOLFBRIGADE is about.” The honor fell to Lawrence Mackrory – already a trusted collaborator with the likes of Meshuggah, Katatonia, Paradise Lost, and Bloodbath – at Necromorbus Studio, the converted Baptist church where Watain and Mayhem refined their occult chaos.
The urge to initiate a new working environment may have been emboldened by the return of drummer David “Dadde” Stark, who originally hammered the d-beats for WOLFBRIGADE from 2002-2015. “Everything clicked immediately. The chemistry was still there,” attests the band.
The term “lycanthro punk” recurs throughout the band’s 30+ year history, a catchy coinage acknowledging their d-beat raw punk roots and adding a maniacal bloodthirst and superhuman strength to the mix. It abides as the band’s preferred musical identity, so their own definition is essential: “Lycanthro Punk has always been about that force which refuses to be tamed. The same force that runs through myth, folklore, and philosophy throughout history. The wolf is one name for it. Dionysus another. A restlessness that survives civilization.” That force drives Howl From Underground.
In advance of the record‘s release, today the band presents first single, “Cold War Bootlicker,” noting of the track, “’Cold War Bootlicker‘ is about false opposites. We divide the world into competing camps, but the machinery never changes. Two heads fighting over the same body. Every master speaks a different language of obedience.”
