Wolverine "Cold Light of Monday" reviews

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Swedens progressive outfit Wolverine have moved into the big league following their signing with Elitist Records, after releasing two prior albums with Emerald Factory (1999s Fervent Dream and 2001s The Window Purpose).
While the term progressive means a multitude of different styles within the metal community, Wolverine are able to combine the atmospherics of latter day Anathema, shades of Empire era Queensrÿche and plenty of influences that are too numerous to mention, but there none the less. The concept album is hardly a new idea these days, but where Cold Light Of Monday succeeds over most is that the story line is easy to follow, and allows your imagination to fill in the remaining gaps. The said story focuses on the tale of a young abused woman called Sarah, and the revealing of just where things started going horribly wrong.
Aside from the conceptualised storyline, musically Wolverine isnt typified with the standard delivery of progressive music, and instead freely moves from style to style without losing consistency and flow throughout.
Dawn is little more than an introduction piece that flows freely into Sarah. The use of multi-layered vocal efforts works efficiently (Courtesy of vocalist Stefan Zell), while the dramatic chord progressions are kept to a minimum, but sound all the more powerful for it.
New Best Friend is perhaps one of the albums best numbers with the strong chorus set on a lush musical landscape, while the instrumental Tightrope experiments with sound effects and sampled drum loops. The track is interesting, but hardly captivating. Carousel is another excellent cut with plenty of interesting guitar riffs and melodies. Zell exceeds himself with a while range of effects, while guitarists Mikael Zell and Per Broddesson push the atmospherics into new realms sound wise. The piano led Trust shifts the mood to the reflective aspect before Pantomine mixes the mellow with the metallic.
Another couple of instrumental tracks come in Red Canvas (Drum solo) and Dusk before finishing the concept with the best tracks on offer from Wolverine in Tied With Sin and the amazing The Final Redemption. Wolverine isnt trying to compete with Dream Theater or any bands of such high stature. Instead, theyve managed to find a sound and direction of their own. And in some way, thats exactly what true progressive music is all about - progressing above and beyond standard music and its parameters.
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