A full decade after their last studio album, Sweden’s WOLVERINE make a long-awaited return with Anomalies, released today through Music Theories Recordings/Artone.
To celebrate they have revealed the official video for Nightfall. At just under six-,minutes long it takes you on a euphoric journey. Talking about the song Stefan Zell says, “Wolverine goes pop! Seriously, a catchy song that I love. The lyrics do, however, deal with a significantly less catchy topic: death anxiety.”
This is Wolverine at their most contrasting. Beautiful sweeping hooks, however something darker lies beneath. The upliftingly bright melodies of ‘Nightfall’ represent one of the most immediate and even catchiest songs that Wolverine has ever recorded. Yet the immediate feel of the music is offset by some unremittingly bleak lyrics such as “Where memories should thrive and soar through the open skies between now and then, A desolate place, through darkness allowed to die, Shrouding the why…”
“That one is, lyrically, from my really darkest period, where I had death anxiety every night when I went to bed,” Zell admits. “It felt like someone stomping on my chest. Just wanting the night to be over. I was not in a good place in life. But I found the contrast between the music and the lyrics quite tempting in a way. You can almost dance to it once it gets going.”
This is the latest single to be taken from the album following ‘This World And All Its Dazzling Lights’ which carries an elegant, effortless beauty — a warmth that unfurls around the listener in luminous layers, and the first song taken from the album, ‘A Perfect Alignment’ – The first part of a trilogy of songs on the album, alongside ‘Circuits’ and the album’s opening track ‘A sudden demise’. Now that the full album has been released, listeners can drink it in, in its entirety, as it was meant to be.
The road to Anomalies has not been an easy one. It’s been a decade since the Söderhamn quintet last released a full album, 2016’s Machina Viva, and four years since their last EP, 2021’s A Darkened Sun, raised hopes that the Swedish prog metallers were back with a vengeance.
“Life got in the way,” Zell sighs when talking about what they’ve been up to in the ensuing years. “We released Still in 2006, that’s 20 years ago now! Up until then, we were really focused on the band. With Still, we thought we had the album, but everything just went quiet; it just didn’t take off.”
“We have always prided ourselves on creating albums that we feel proud of. We want to really feel like this is something we can stand by.”
Producer, Oliver Philips, who’s worked with the Swedes since 2001’s The Window Purpose debut album, and whose own band, Everon made their first new studio album for 17 years, in 2025 for Music Theories Recordings, was instrumental in getting things moving.
“When we started writing for this album, we again wanted to work with Oliver,” Zell says. “He’s produced albums before for us, and I wanted to record vocals with him again. And he helped us get in touch with [Music Theories Recordings founder] Ed van Zijl, and one thing led to another. It ignited our spark again. I’m also 20 years older now than when I recorded Still. To think I have a sober look at it now, I’m really happy to be able to release this album.”
Today, Zell is brimming with enthusiasm, fired up by the knowledge that his band – the Machina Viva line-up of Jonas Jonsson (guitar), Thomas Jansson (bass), Marcus Losbjer (drums), and Per Henriksson (keyboards) remains intact. For a band unafraid to delve into the disquiet corners of life, the mood is bold and upbeat.
