Powerwolf - "Blessed And Possessed" (2015) Album Review by SSE

Hello to everyone. Jesús Ernesto Vasquez here, bringin' to you my review about Powerwolf's "Blessed & Possessed"

First of all... Powerwolf is one of my favorite Power Metal bands, they have an unique Metallic sound, mixing... uh... Satanic with Catholic Tendences... It's strange, because nobody knows if the're catholic, they're satanic... Bah, It's a complicated confusion. But we are not here for that.

We are here... because Powerwolf released a new album this year! and it looks like one of their most acclaimed albums after the release of 2 singles: "Armata Strigoi" and "Army of the Night"

This is the playlist of the album:

1. "Blessed & Possessed"      
2. "Dead Until Dark"      
3. "Army of the Night"      
4. "Armata Strigoi"      
5. "We Are the Wild"      
6. "Higher Than Heaven"      
7. "Christ & Combat"      
8. "Sanctus Dominus"      
9. "Sacramental Sister"      
10 "All You Can Bleed"      
11. "Let There Be Night" 

Alrigh... here we go with POINT NUMBAH 1

Sound:
As always, we can find that the majority of the songs are played/tuned on C# minor. AS ALWAYS. I mean... There is... "We Drink your Blood", Sanctified with Dynamite", "Armata Strigoi", "Catholic in the Morning, Satanist at Night", "Army of the Night", "Werewolves of Armenia"... I think they'll be owners of this tunning!
After all, they keep having the same Speed Metal style, with the high pitched vocals from Attila Dorn and Church Organ by Falk Maria Schlegel (EPIC). They have an intense sound on every song. For example, on "Higher than Heaven" and "Blessed & Possessed"
There's something that makes Powerwolf sound so Epic... no, sorry... EPIC, with big letters, and that element is the high speed of the sound. They have an EXCELLENT EPIC SOUND. When you listen to a fast tempo song from Powerwolf, you can imagine a battle between demons and angels into a Post-Apocalyptic scenario. And the prove lies on "Christ And Combat". This album has that awesome characteristic.

2nd POINT: Inspiration from antique songs and Similarities
So many artists make this... they take some samples from their own antique songs or try to make them sound similar. For example:

- In "We Are The Wild", at the begining and chorus, we can clearly listen to some kind of "sampling" from their antique song "We Drink Your Blood"
- In "All You Can Bleed", there's a rhythmic influence from "Amen and Attack".
- The first song ("Blessed & Possessed") has a similarity with "Sanctified with Dynamite".

Now, 2 songs inside the album have... "equal" sounding.

- "All You Can Bleed" and "Let There Be Night" sound... a little bit equal. They have 1 pitch tone and rhythm difference, but the melody sounds similar.

3rd POINT: Album Editions
Before the release date of "Blessed And Possessed", on Napalm Records YouTube Channel with the lyric video from "Armata Strigoi", the band announced 2 different versions from the album: Normal version and Deluxe Edition.

What's the difference between both versions? Here are the differences:

NORMAL                                                                              DELUXE

1. "Blessed & Possessed"                          |        Disc 1       1. "Blessed & Possessed"  
2. "Dead Until Dark"                                 |                         2. "Dead Until Dark"  
3. "Army of the Night"                              |                         3. "Army of the Night"  
4. "Armata Strigoi"                                    |                         4. "Armata Strigoi"      
5. "We Are the Wild"                                 |                         5. "We Are the Wild"      
6. "Higher Than Heaven"                           |                         6. "Higher Than Heaven"  
7. "Christ & Combat"                                 |                         7. "Christ & Combat"  
8. "Sanctus Dominus"                                |                         8. "Sanctus Dominus"      
9. "Sacramental Sister"                              |                         9. "Sacramental Sister"      
10 "All You Can Bleed"                             |                        10 "All You Can Bleed"  
11. "Let There Be Night"                           |                        11. "Let There Be Night" 
                                                                          Disc 2        12. "Touch Of Evil"
                                                                                            13. "Conquistadores"
                                                                                            14. "Edge Of Thorns"
                                                                                            15. "Power And Glory"
                                                                                            16. "Out In The Fields"
                                                                                            17. "Shot In The Dark"
                                                                                            18. "Gods Of War Arise"
                                                                                            19. "The Evil Men Do"
                                                                                            20. "Headless Cross"
                                                                                            21. "Nightcrawler"

The Deluxe Edition includes 2 discs. The Disc No. 2 is the album "Metallum Nostrum", a Cover Album dedicated to Metal famous artists, like Judas Priest, Amon Amarth, Gary Moore, etc. It means: 2 in 1

FINAL OPINION:

This album was the most acclaimed from the band, the 2 songs they revealed showed just a little bit of all the power inside the album. The only thing I can say from them is that THEY NEVER DISSAPOINT THEIR FANATICS. They keep having their authentic Epicness on their songs. They are real Wolves! They are Powerwolf. Metal Masters in the morning and the night.

Well, guys. That's my album review about "Blessed & Possessed". Hope you like it!
Thanks for reading this. I'll see you later in this blog.

My name is Jesús Ernesto Vasquez. Have a nice day!