There’s a phrase that flies around the Sentinel Daily ‘virtual office’ from time to time – ‘band X sounds like HammerFall with grumpy vocals’. In 2024, that’s an accusation that can be levelled at an awful lot of ‘melodic death metal’ acts, so when one tips up on a big label with all their dodsmetal cred not only intact but – perish the thought – in the form of their life, then you really do sit up and take a long, hard listen.

Wolfheart are the band in question this time around, and blow me if their new album, Draconian Darkness, doesn’t tick all the boxes a ‘proper’ melodeath album should. Wolfheart instinctively know when is enough is enough, and on DD they never cross that line; even when they insert little symphonic flourishes, the overall thrust of the music remains raw and honest, meaning that the symphonic elements on tracks like Burning Sky remain just as augmentation – just as it should be.

There’s a gratifying base heaviness in everything that Wolfheart does that ensures fans of true metal will never tire of them. This allows them to experiment, to an extent, with fans safe in the knowledge that, however many little ‘modern’ clean-vocalled interjections they throw in, there’s a face-melting riff not far behind; There’s no need for a buyer-beware clause here!

But beyond all that, Wolfheart have constructed some absolute bangers here, songs that you’ll want to keep returning to again and again. Singalong soon-to-be-classics like Death Leads The Way, for instance, or closer The Gale, which sees the boys unfurling their sensitive side via the deployment of some neat acoustic playing before erupting into a tumescent climax of unreconstructed, blazing heavy metal.

Make no mistake, this is great stuff, not just for deaths-head-toting fans of extremity but for all fans of glorious, unbridled heavy metal. Enjoy!

Draconian Darkness releases on September 6th.