Review: WEHRWOLF – Возрождение Европы

Year of release: 2015
Label: Urgrund Division / Lost Reich Rex
Rating: 6 / 10

This review is worth starting with a contextual introduction that clarifies Bagnik Zine's position in relation to phenomena inextricably linked with the described album. The band WEHRWOLF, as far as I can tell from what I know and heard on the album, was created by members of KAMAEDZITCA, DIABOLIZM and PIAREVARACIEŃ. KAMAEDZITCA in those years maintained friendly relations with the organization Misanthropic Division, which, in turn, is (or was, since the status of MD is not clear today) an ally / part of Wotanjugend. MD and WJ have been causing a cognitive dissonance in me for years. On the one hand, the participants of the organizatio(s) have long proved the firmness of their beliefs and the ability to conduct real actions, including even military ones. And this, in the end, is the most important. Facta loquuntur! For this, they deserve respect and honour. On the other hand, WJ as a creative unit is a terrible mixture of frenzied enthusiasm and blatant bad taste, genuine talent and deep ignorance. The propaganda work of WJ clearly takes place under the heading “you need to fucking develop spiritually, otherwise you're fucked". Targeting young gopniks from the piss-soaked city porches and trying to draw their attention to high matters with the help of badly written texts in zines and social media - it requires a lot of faith in the pedagogical abilities of the authors. At least, the authors of WJ themselves probably learned a lot of new things by studying literature of a certain kind. And it cannot be denied that a large community has formed around the organization, albeit not of the highest standard. As for MD, they spoke with the audience in its language. The posts on their Vkontakte official page, made according to the rules of peasant public pages, are still fresh in my memory: "dangerous" photos with knives and lengthy bullshit storiesabout how I, like all such a beautiful lonely wolf with a knife in my pocket, am scouring the streets, ready to cut inhabitants like cattle. I felt terrible shame reading to this.

The musical activity of WJ perfectly characterized by the creativity of a key band of the movement - M8L8TH. Generally, pretty good band, they still look like clowns in my eyes, thanks to their pathos splashing out of all the cracks, the lack of creative brakes and the unbearable romanticization of everything connected with Nazi Germany. It is obvious that any National Socialist is romantic at heart, but not so much! And, of course, both M8L8TH and WJ generally share the absurd claims for Black Metal, dating back to the days of The Pagan Front, a respectable organization that somehow tried to combined the embodiment of destructive satanic power with the creation of a bright future for white children.

Why is all of the above? Because “Возрождение Европы” (Renaissance of Europe) is a very revealing example of the art of the Wotan Youth in everything from music to the approach to publication. This is a good, energetic and melodic right metal, performed with the sophistication of a drunken shepherd, who attended the congress of Austrian artists. Honest, simple, rhythmic riffs, which could work well on their own, are continually suppressed by pathetic keys with a backswing almost on EMPEROR, idiotic declamations and such shameful tricks from the mainstream submetal as the alternation of growling and screeching vocals. The main vocal line (as I understand it, performed by the leader of PIAREVARACIEŃ), however, was a success. Powerful and legible, right down to the last word. But these words, oh my... for the first time in a long time I regretted that the booklet has lyrics, and the vocalist is singing so well. This is PAGAN REIGN level, if not higher. The concentration of pompous phrases exceeds all reasonable limits. Whoever wrote these texts, he has no idea about the need for contrast. There are only "soar ups" and "nordic hearts" all over the place. A real poet, probably, could have linked this madness of the red syllable into something adequate, but not a craftsman-textualist, who inserts random words for the sake of preserving rhyme, then suddenly rejects rhyme and size in order to fully express his thoughts. You can make a separate booklets from the pearls like "dispel the devilish message of your illusions". In general, the propaganda element of the album is bad. Perhaps, it is able to inspire a young man aged 15-18, but only if he has an innate craving for power metal and national socialism, because WEHRWOLF texts turned out to be a combination of both.

One way or another, you can listen to music here, despite the foul-smelling decisions. The closest analogue, besides above-mentioned PIAREVARACIEŃ, is ABSURD of the early 2000s. 4th track is an ABSURD cover. The rhythms, as I said, are good, not looped, as in RAC. Compositions are tenacious and easily readable. The melody is somewhere between the Teutonic and Belarusian: there are no folk elements, however, there is something local about them. The music performed beautifully and soulfully, with a competent sound. In general, I could have recommend the album to most of Bagnik Zine readers, but there is one problem... no, it's a disaster. It is called “Go Vegan!” and goes as the last track on the CD.

I do not have any negative feelings for vegans, I don't care about them. Moreover, I largely share the views of WEHRWOLF musicians on environmental issues - however, I do not dream of a green world for white children, but of a world that defeats a man completely nd successfully gets rid of our parasitic presence. However, WEHRWOLF eco-manifest turned out to be a real catastrophe. Absolutely everything is terrible in this nonsense song. A vulgar unicellular metalcore as a basis, teenage backing vocals, yet another shameful declamation in the end... and a hopelessly stupid text that provokes only one desire - to put a fat patty on the page of the booklet. The rhyme is in the spirit of WEHRWOLF - it is on “Go Vegan!” you can find the following amazing rhyme pattern (not at all related to the rhythm of the music in this passage). Unfortunately, it can't be translated to English properly, but you can guess by the size:
глаза – вина
равнодушен – стаду дУши
обед – человек
себе подобных – ТОЛЕРАНТНЫЙ ПИДОР БЕЗ СОБСТВЕННОГО МНЕНИЯ!

According to the logic of the authors, upon hearing these incoherent lines, the listener must immediately accept their position, what will make him intolerant non-faggot with his own opinion? Or how? It’s embarrassing ... It seems that even the Belarusian law enforcement officers were impressed, because by a special court decision they added the physical release of “Возрождение Европы" to the list of extremist materials.

With the physical edition, as I mentioned, everything is also very Wotan Jugend-like. The band has a beautiful logo that looks cool as a disc cover. The idea with the internal design is also not bad: Hitler, Mussolini, art from German posters, thematic photos, etc. - richly. But the design is spoiled by peasant approach: banal “starry sky” background, low resolution of images and their inept processing. Using a well-known PC wallpaper image for the booklet spread is not a good idea either. But generally, the design is OK. But the release of the album on Pro-CDr is an unacceptable solution. "Возрождение Европы" despite its shortcomings, is a piece of propaganda activity of the right wing movement - that is, the material that parasites from law enforcement agencies are actively fighting, gaining statistics for themselves by arresting you for reposting swastikas in social media. Considering the well-known direction of political activity not only in post-USSR, but in the whole world, after some time even mp3 with WEHRWOLF songs can become an inaccessible luxury. Would it be pleasant for those who want to revive Europe to take a CDr from a shelf and find out that it is no longer readable, since it has outlived its time?

After the release of the album, WEHRWOLF fell silent for a long time, reminding about itself only with a single in 2017 and a performance at the Asgardsrei festival. Just the other day, the band announced a rebirth, releasing a new single under the name WHRWLF. Judge for yourself - in my opinion, there are positive changes: