Alpha Wolf – Half Living Things (Review)

Alpha Wolf are an Australian metalcore band and this is their third album.

I thoroughly enjoyed 2020’s A Quiet Place to Die, as well as 2022’s split with Holding Absence The Lost & the Longing, so more new material from Alpha Wolf is very well-received. I dislike the album art, but ignoring that, what do Alpha Wolf have in store for us this time around?

Half Living Things is a crushing ball of adrenaline-soaked heaviness and energetic intensity. This is a collection of tracks that can’t fail to move you. The band’s mix of metalcore, hardcore, and nu-metal, (with a touch of deathcore), just hits the spot. The songwriting is tight and effective, and the album very enjoyable.

Featuring twelve tracks across 40 minutes, Half Living Things once again brings us a riot of heaviness. However, like the cover, the music has undergone some changes too. Not as radical to be sure, as the core of Alpha Wolf’s sound is intact and well, but on Half Living Things the band have tried a few new things – some clean vocals, brief forays into atmosphere, a cinematic edge in places – and it mostly works well.

Alpha Wolf have lost none of their skill in crafting killer riffs and rhythmic devastation. The band always put me in mind of the mighty Eighteen Visions, who had a similar ability to unleash massive riffs that were simultaneously heavy as Hell, but that also carried dynamic emotion too. In this regard I can’t help but think of Alpha Wolf as the spiritual successors to Eighteen Visions, only updated for the current day, and given a spin all of their own.

The singer has retained his talent with his rhythmic patterns and hook-filled roars, and he’s even joined by Ice-T on one song. The occasional bout of clean vocals, provided by the bassist, works fine, but I definitely prefer the lead singer’s screams and shouts, as they’re so charismatic and impassioned.

Half Living Things is a blast. It is groove-based heaviness that’s satisfying and fun. What’s not to like? If you’re a fan of the style, then Alpha Wolf do it better than most.