Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8/10

To have the air and stance of the disconnected whilst all the time being totally immersed in the flow of the music is to know that no matter what, you are not alone; the feeling of space around you is such that it is not filled with detachment and separation but the whispers, the rage of being embroiled in the mesh, the web and in Wolve’s Lazare there is, thankfully, no way out.

French Progressive Rock may have bypassed the general population north of the English Channel but it is a growing area, one in which the Wolve truly stand out as being part of, in fact, arguably being considered one of the masters of their craft; certainly across the water and past the high cliffs of Dover.

Wolve’s four track E.P. is brutal, it is full of fierce and gorgeously wild pounding and seismic beat, the flow is like finding yourself hemmed in on all sides by a Harras of wild horses, the snort and the foam heavy in the air as they race past you, the muscles stretching, the sinews aching and all the time, the fear that one could knock you over keeps you penned in with admiration; there is nothing quite like the senses being hammered by nature and by music to know the world is an O.K. place.

Lazre offers something a little different though, the sound of the passionate despair, notably in the short additional track of Inferno, this unexpectedly short moment is almost prelude like, the scream in the forest as the chainsaw is taking down yet another tree to be pulped and ripped from the Earth’s protective feel, it is a moment that fills in the gap where opening track Lazare, Porcelain and Far take the listener too, the mechanics of the untameable but dogged in their resistance, the shudder of the iceberg breaking off but revealing dry land underneath.

All is and ever was possible with Progressive Rock and Wolve capture the moment brilliantly, the anger of the let down and the left behind consumed and consummated with great lyrics and a frighteningly alert and gracious tempo; sometimes a change in appearance can make you stand out more and Wolve have done just that.

Ian D. Hall