Wolves At The Gate: Wastedland | When Metalcore Gets Interesting
(2025 – SolidState Records)
After listening over and over again to more or less similar offerings in the Metalcore genre, at this point you don’t have much hope of finding something different or truly compelling. In fact, I didn’t have much hope for Wolves At The Gate. “Wastedland” really shook me out of my apathy and my preconceptions. An almost perfect album, full of nuances, of songs that fill the atmosphere, of parts that come together to form a single, seamless whole; an album that we’re almost certain will eventually become a classic for the band—and we say “almost” because not everything is as perfect as it seems.
In a techno-metal and quasi-apocalyptic atmosphere, with a lot of early 2000s Nu Metal and certain sonic aspects of so-called Modern Metal, Wolves At The Gate delivers an album that must be listened to from start to finish.
On “Wastedland,” things unfold step by step, with songs that stand on their own yet, taken together, create an undeniably captivating album. That is one of its greatest strengths.
This wasteland that Wolves At The Gate presents begins with an atmospheric instrumental piece that serves to introduce us to the album’s atmosphere. “(INT[R]O)” is the gateway to a world of dystopian sound, and thus the true kickoff with “(The Wasteland) Pain,” is strong, fast, techno-driven, and features the classic clean vocals of metalcore—sounding raw, gloomy, and desperate—intermingling with the clean, powerful riffs that define Wolves At The Gate’s sound.
“Parasite” is something else. With an incessant, catchy rhythm and melodic choruses, things take a softer turn, but with those percussion sounds and the accompanying guitar riffs, the band at times becomes a sort of wall drill. Next, with some heavy riffs, comes “Synthetic Sun,” a track that wouldn’t feel out of place in a “Matrix” movie.
A dark chant marked by an even darker atmosphere is the short “Wandering,” followed by a barrage of heavy riffs and guttural screams in a Slipknot-style rap. That’s “Law Of The [Waste]Land,” but in its structure, you can hear different layers of carefully chosen sounds blended with the band’s powerful sound.
Totally stirring and captivating is “Smoke (False Devils),” a track that brings out the best Wolves At The Gate can achieve. That balance between modernity, imagination, and a polished, powerful, and pretentiously modern sound can be found here, and as a sort of continuation in lyrics and music, we find the dark “Withering”—slow and steeped in melancholic lament. It’s impressive, to say the least.
“Death Clock” follows the album’s overall tone, with an unrelenting rhythm much closer to what is called Modern Metal, and with an interlude in between (‘Wasting’), we enter “Memento Mori,” a track that once again settles into a slow, tedious march, inevitably drawing comparisons to other exponents of the genre. It is perhaps this final part of “Wasteland” where things don’t flow as smoothly as at the beginning, and that’s despite “Unrest,” a track that, sandwiched between yet another interlude (“Wanting”), seems to want to establish itself as one of the album’s highlights, even though it blends into that nebulous space between the most modern trends (read: Techno Metal) and plain, straightforward Metalcore. It’s a shame because up until the final part of “Wasteland,” they had been following a rather interesting trajectory.
In any case, “Wastedland” remains, in our opinion, one of the best-crafted and produced works in Metalcore. There’s no doubt that the production, the songs, and the sound form a combination that places them among the bands worth following—at least within this new, ultra-modern trend trying to establish itself in the Metal scene.
The ups and downs mentioned are nothing more than an expected flaw and that attempt to position themselves, perhaps, as a more accessible band for the general public who don’t usually delve into metal as a genre and movement. That takes away quite a bit of the seriousness of the matter, but overall, Wolves At The Gate uses their intelligence and timing to deliver an album that never gets boring and holds your attention from the first track to the last.
The sound we hear on “Wastedland” is among the best you can hear these days. Following a common approach in modern mixes—with a heavy emphasis on deep bass in the percussion and low-end guitar tones—we can say it delivers, but the sound production also deserves special mention, offering a wide range of distinct sounds across each track on the album. Truly very polished and impressive.
A VERY negative point regarding the album’s visual design. Not because of the cover—while it’s not anything to write home about, it does the job. The problem lies with the physical release itself, where, in a very poor decision by SolidStare Records, we get nothing more than a cardboard sleeve with the cover art, back cover, and a few technical details printed on it. We don’t even get the lyrics. Not even underground band demos come packaged this way. If you’re going to cut costs like this, you might as well stop bothering with physical releases altogether, guys. It really is almost a rip-off, and what we’re about to say will probably surprise you. The digital edition is probably better than the physical one, mainly because it’s always cheaper and we won’t run into the problem of receiving just a cardboard sleeve. Maybe the vinyl edition is better, but we doubt it. So, you’re doing a poor job here, guys!
Where they really went all out is with the music videos. With a cinematic short film concept, we have the official video for “Parasite,” which runs a little over 14 minutes to give you an idea, with a storyline that apparently extends into the “Death Clock” short, forming a sort of mini-movie. We’ve included them below so you can enjoy a moment of cinema and metalcore, and yes, we’ve also included the band’s social media links so you can follow them and stay updated on their news….
https://www.facebook.com/wolvesatthegate
https://www.instagram.com/wolvesatthegate
