POWERWOLF

“Stamp your feet” and bark at the moon, because this band finally made its first visit to Vancouver.

There is always a sense of excitement when I go see a band that I have not seen before.  We see the bands videos and the hoards of fans in Europe that adore them, but what will it be like here in North America?   Such is the case with the band Power Wolf who are playing the Queen Elizabeth Theatre downtown in Vancouver Canada.   This band is extremely popular in Europe, especially their home country of Germany.   Does that popularity transfer over here as well?  Well sometimes, they regularly headline and sellout major shows in Europe.  Here at the Queen Elizabeth with a capacity of 2765 patrons, I see about maybe 2100 in the venue.   They are on their own tonight with no supporting acts, as their support band Dragonforce could not make the call with a broken down bus. Not sure why a large band like this cannot bring at least 2 support acts in the case of this happening?

This is their first time in Vancouver, as this band has been around since 2004.  The like to write mythical songs about Vampires and Werewolves,  with a spiritual twist.   They have created 10 albums since 2004, with the latest in the discography from 2024 called Wake Up the Wicked. 

 One thing that is a solid with this band, is its members who are Falk Maria Schlegel” (Keyboards), Matthew Greywolf (lead guitar), Charles Greywolf  (bass, rhythm guitar), Roel van Helden (drums) and Attila Dorn (vocals).  With exception of the drummer Roel who took over in 2011, the rest are the founding members of the band.   That is getting pretty rare these days for a band to stick together for 20+ years.

At 8pm showtime, the band does a slow entry to the stage starting with Falk who comes to the front of the stage to whip up the crowd.   They start with fast thrasher called “Bless’em With the Blade” from the new album.   The crowd was rather lethargic in the first couple in my opinion, but that’s why support acts are nice, as they tend get the fans worked up and ready.   Another reason for that is that the Queen Elizabeth is a seated theatre, so no dance floor.  Things got better with the next couple songs with “Incense & Iron” and thereafter “Army of the Night”.

These guys definitely did not cheap out with the stage setup.  It looks like a grandiose cathedral with a few massive lancet windows which will have all the visuals of the show.   And those visuals of wolves mostly are rather awesome too and change frequently with every song.   I have to hand it to them for that piece as it is quite the spectacle when you are in front of it.  One of the best I have seen in sometime.

At a Powerwolf show, be prepared to be part of it.  Attila does quite abit of in-between song chit chat as well as getting you to sing and laugh.  They definitely don’t take this stuff seriously unlike a lot of corpse painted metal bands as they like to have fun and joke around.  At times they make you sit down and stomp your feet and then standup and stomp your feet.  I recall hearing a few in the crowd become tired of sitting down, standing up routine, does get abit wearing after awhile.  Speaking of sitting down, the song “Stossgebet” (song 8) he had the crowd entirely sit on that song, understandable enough as it has its spiritual bits, but that was hard for a few that just cant do that at a metal show.

The musicianship was tight as can be, like they have played these songs a million times and are very polished.   Attila’s voice is impeccable, rather operatic most times and on point with the songs you hear on the albums.   Both guitarists,  switched sides quite frequently when they played and like to move around, unlike some bands who will stand in their zone the entire set.  Birthday boy Falk, (keyboardist) was somewhat a cheerleader throughout the show coming to the front and egging the crowd on or doing skits with Attila which was pretty fun.  Especially when they were close dancing,

They managed to hit 17 songs (14 with 3 encore) from 10 of the 12 albums.  They ignored material from the first 2 albums, Return in the Bloodred and Lupus Dei.   Of course they hit all the big songs like “We Drink Your Blood”, “Dancing with the Dead” and “Demons Are A Girl’s Best Friend” where Attila walked up and down the stairs of the theatre singing that untouched.   Where else can he do such a thing safely?

I will freely admit that I always thought of Powerwolf being the ‘Meatloaf’ of metal.  Catchy songs that really come off well live and Attila’s voice is definitely something to be appreciated.   I do think I came out of this being more of a fan of the band now that I saw them.  As much as Youtube presents us the next best thing, there is nothing like seeing a performance itself.   They might need a couple tours in the future to get to Europe level crowds, but they are definitely going to be a big time band out here soon enough.  It was great seeing them finally in Vancouver!