The strength of these decisions pay off instantly in the massive, febrile intensity of the captured sound as it bursts from the speakers like a haywire freight train. “Rather than building the songs layer by layer, we wanted to capture the band as a single unit,” notes WOLFBRIGADE. “The push and pull that happens when five people are locked into the same moment. There’s a tension in those kinds of performances that’s difficult to recreate any other way. Without a safety net, the focus sharpens and something else takes over. Sometimes the songs begin to take on a life of their own. More than anything, it leaves room for the unexpected.”
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 shows felt vital, and suddenly it felt both interesting and relevant to return to the old songs again.” This fresh boost of energy and spirit resulted in 2025’s seat-of-your-pants live album Kill To Live, a heartening reaffirmation of the band’s first principles.
“Recording it was a reminder of what WOLFBRIGADE is at its most fundamental level,” observes the band. “Instead of taking a break afterwards, we moved almost straight into working on Howl From Underground, and began developing ideas that had always been embedded in the concept of lycanthro punk.”
