To refine his album for years and to release it just before the whole country is confined for several months, you'll admit that it's no luck to launch a new band. All the more reason to put it in the spotlight at this nightmarish end of the year, so that it doesn't pass under the radar of progressive metal fans. Especially since the project The Wolf You Feed, initiated by bassist and composer Grégory Breton, has a real personality and proves it with this first album "...And The Wild Returns".
Everyone already knows that man is a wolf to man, but for The Wolf You Feed, man is rather two wolves to man. This is in any case the meaning of the name of the Parisian group inherited from an Amerindian legend, "The Tale of the Two Wolves", each one embodying different emotions, positive for one and negative for the other. This canine yin and yang serves as material for the lyrics of "...And The Wild Returns", but also for the music of The Wolf You Feed which shines by its eclecticism and diversity.
If the progressive metal label is the most appropriate one to characterize this album, the fact remains that The Wolf You Feed blurs the tracks, shamelessly going from epic power metal ('Fight With A Smile') to a melodic heavy metal inherited from Iron Maiden ('10000 Eyes', 'Dress Code Blood') or to a nervous and dark prog thrash metal a la Nevermore ('He Who Brings Destruction').
It is indeed under its most progressive aspect that The Wolf You Feed is the most convincing, like on the very good 'Victory' which cumulates the combined influences of Dream Theater and Haken, and especially the excellent 'In The Sea Of Insanity', the longest and most complex track of the album, where the band expresses all its rhythmic and melodic potential. Let us greet in passing the excellent work of the duo bass/drums, the latter being held by the no less excellent Aurélien Ouzoulias (drummer of Mörglbl, Satan Jokers, Disconnected).
However, wanting too much to surprise the listener, The Wolf You Feed is not safe from losing him a little along the way. This is the case with the pop rock track 'Come Along The Shadows'. With its verses inspired by Iggy Pop's 'The Passenger' and its pop refrains, this song really seems to come out of nowhere. Even if it is far from being bad, its playful and luminous side contrasts so much with the darkness and the intensity of the rest of the album that it breaks the rhythm and attenuates its symbolic scope.
Anyway, The Wolf You Feed is an ambitious band that deserves all our attention. He delivers us with "...And The Wild Returns" a daring album, proving once again the quality of the progressive metal scene.