Hello Metal-Temple. I'm bringing you today the Progressive sound of WOLVERINE with their new album "Machina Viva". This understated band from Sweden have become regular players at Progressive festivals around the world since 1999, and here, they are presenting us with a polished sound with luxurious falls throughout the 68 minutes of play time.

The album opens right away with a 14-and-a-half-minute-long journey that is "The Bedlam Overture". The song is split into multiple parts that embellished by an inspiring guitar solo and Stefan's clean vocal work. There is a lot of work poured into this song and it rarely repeats itself over its entirety. Its progressive signature has some definite inspiration from bands like OPETH; it goes from slow and melancholic to powerful and epic and back again. They really start this album in a beautiful fashion.

"Machina" isn't really a great followup to the powerful first song, for it slows down to a crawl with a bit of an electronic beat at the beginning. It does pick it up some, but it doesn't deliver anything as epic. I feel like they should have kept the first song for the middle of the album, for it delivered a bit too much and left the rest of the album seeming a bit bland in comparison.

The next song, "Pile of Ash", is an emotional acoustic piece that is masterfully sung by Stefan. He is really showing off his vocal prowess with the very minimal support from the guitars. I was blown away by the performance he was able to deliver and the raw energy in his voice.

This is followed by a slew of lengthy progressive songs. "Our Last Goodbye", "Pledge" and "When The Night Comes" all revisit the same fantastic hooks, riffs and melodies. They all run for about 7 minutes 45 and go from slow to fast while incorporating various choruses; this gives a flavour to the product that is gentle to the ears.

As a veteran band, WOLVERINE have delivered a good album that will please a lot of fans of the band and Progressive Metal alike. I was taken away a few times by the sheer power of their melodies, and yet I just feel like the songs should have been shuffled around to utilise the first song more efficiently. All in all, it is a pleasure to the ears and I'd love to hear more from them.