Blood of the Wolf is back with a fifth installation of their blackened death metal sound with "V: Indomitable." They hail from Chicago, where they've been lurking in the underground, pumping out demos, EPs, LPs, compilations, singles, and any other format you could release music in. Their new record proves that BotW is capable of kicking your teeth down your throat, but after doing so, they're left twiddling their blood-stained thumbs, not knowing what to do next.

According to RateYourMusic, "war metal" is described as "aggressive, chaotic, and heavily death metal influenced...incorporating war-themed lyrics." Screw blackened death metal -- "V: Indomitable" is a war metal album. Sure, some of the sharper riffs remind me of black metal, and the machine gun-like blast beats courtesy of Rick are kvlt-coded, but they're not enough to overpower the death metal aspects. Mike's vocals are constantly situated at a mid-level guttural, and all of the lyrics he sings are slightly enunciated, so I can actually hear what the hell he's talking about. The guitars are also standard for death metal, punishing and extremely distorted. The bass, death metal-like as well, is constantly rumbling in the background. We've established that war metal "incorporates war-themed lyrics," and this album is full of them. Each track deals with combat, fire, flesh, and the indomitable spirit of war. Every single track seems to bask in these topics, so don't expect to hear Blood of the Wolf sing about anything else except conflicts and bloodshed. It's aggressive, it's chaotic, and it's straight-fucking-forward.

After listening to a solid half hour of their war metal, I felt absolutely nothing. Sure, it was heavy, grotesque, and the like, but I didn't gain anything from the experience. I just sat at my desk and mumbled something around the lines of  "well, alright." Metal is supposed to leave you with something, whether good or bad, and I was left exactly what I had started with: not much. Blood of the Wolf is obviously a competent band, but after their barrage of brutality, there's not much else for them to do.