Powerwolf just released their new record Wake Up The Wicked and it's all the massive heavy metal you could possibly need in your life. The following is a conversation with Powerwolf guitarist Matthew Greywolf, spanning everything from the new record to the band's upcoming North American tour with Unleash The Archers.
Grab your copy of Wake Up The Wicked here.
To kick things off, your latest album, Wake Up The Wicked, is out today, and really incorporates many different heavy metal styles from classic nods to modern riffs. How do you see the band evolving as you continue your world domination, musically, and with a themed band, how do you come up with ways to keep things fresh 20 years in?
For me, Wake Up The Wicked contains all trademarks of 20 Years of Powerwolf. We managed to capture that spark of enthusiasm and the raw energy of our early classics such as "Bible of the Beast" as well as the layered approach of later albums like "The Sacrament of Sin”, and united them in 11 very compact, dense songs. We brought back some nice, upspeed moments and all the epicness that makes our sound shine.
The attention to detail on this album is noticeable. What, in your opinion as the artist, are some creative "leaps” you took in songwriting and recording this time that you feel fans should pay attention for when listening to the album?
We varied guitars tunings a lot, which brings in nice dynamics and variation during the course of the album. We mainly did that to adapt the songs to Attila's preferred vocal range in each song, but as a side effect, this brought nice variation in atmosphere and sound too. One of these things you can't plot and plan
Also, within our typical sound, we did experiment quite a bit in the details, such as the children's choir in "We Don't Wanna Be No Saints", or quite a lot of decently mixed 80s synths. I love Maiden's "7th son…" and this time used quite a bit of synth in that style. Overall, I feel like with every album we add to our catalogue, the more open-minded we think, even though of course we don't change drastically. We found our trademark style many albums ago and the challenge for us is to add great new songs to that, implementing some new and fresh moments and continuing telling the story, so to say.
We know the band is thematically tied to werewolf lore, but what specifically inspired you to focus on the story of Peter Stumpp with "1589"? Who came across this story and decided to put it to music?
The case of Peter Stump is probably the most famous so called "Werewolf trial" in Germany. I read many essays and articles about it quite a few years ago and was immediately hooked. The perfect stuff to write a Powerwolf song about. But it took me until last year to come up with that dramatic piano-based theme that had this strong storytelling kind of vibe, that I felt would suit the story.
I wrote that song entirely on piano and that's how I presented it to Attila. We added the band and all the layers much later. Attila enjoyed himself in the role of the narrator, who tells the story of Stump, and that was when I realized this would become a special song for us. I'm really happy it even made it to being chosen as the first single and video song of Wake Up The Wicked.
Your music videos are absolutely huge – what inspires you to create such intense visuals, and I'm sure all viewers want to know, what's the process behind getting the chance to film on these huge sets like real mast ships, massive churches etc?
For us, the video clips are more than just a performance of the song. We try to tell the story and take the watcher to the specific world the song talks about. I'm tired of music videos where the band is playing the song in an abandoned hangar or something. Even more, we're tired of all those green screen or CGI clips. We think old-school when it comes to filming a video. Real locations, real actors, all the blood, sweat and tears it takes – it makes a difference. If you watch our video for "1589", you can literally see how much those actors were into the story, and all of it is real. We shot the clip in the winter in England, it was freezing cold and raining cats and dogs. We suffered, and it shows.
The same goes for the video for "Sinners of the Seven Seas", which we shot in an actual replica of the Neo Victoria, one of the ships from Columbus' expedition to America. Man, that ship was far from how traveling on a modern ship feels. We all got seasick immediately, you can literally see Falk being close to throwing up in some scenes, haha.
The band has seen major success in Europe throughout your careers, but now you've set your sights on North America with your first ever headline tour, following some sellout shows here last year. Can you share some tidbits about anything new/special you're bringing specifically to your performances in North America that fans can look forward to?
We consciously decided to premiere Wake Up The Wicked in North America, to point out "this time you were first", and it will become really special. Bringing the songs and new visuals to the stage for the first time is always extremely exciting, and we will play in many American cities that we've never played before, so it will be a premiere in many aspects. We're absolutely thrilled and excited about it and can't wait for the tour to start.
Any US festival plans on the future horizon, or are you still in the planning phases? European fans have been able to witness the band in an open air setting, so it would be cool to have you doing that here as well!
Not yet, since first of all, there's the headline tour in North America coming up, followed by the European leg. But I'm quite sure that in 2025 we will make our way across the pond to bring some open air metal masses to festival stages – be prepared!
We all saw the band photo from Times Square after your performance in NYC last year. That said, are there some iconic places you were unable to visit this past time in America that you're looking forward to checking out, and if so, where in particular?
Well, it's needless to say that North America is huge, and so visiting a few cities is not enough to get a true first impression. That's why I'm looking forward to spending more time in cities we have already been, plus of course getting to see many new places. Most of all, I'm looking forward to traveling many thousands of miles on the tour bus, since we're doing that all the way from the west to the east coast, and from Florida to Canada. I love seeing the landscapes change and getting a sense for those huge distances. Touring is a very special way of traveling and getting to see the world, and I consider this one of the greatest benefits of being a touring musician.
