BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai recently spoke with WOLF guitarist Johannes “Axeman” Losbäck about the band's new album, Ravenous. Following is an excerpt from the story, with Losbäck explaining the reasons for line-up changes made since the release of their 2006 album, The Black Flame.

“We said no to two months on tour with Trivium and Annihilator (in 2007). Financially it would have killed us because we’ve got houses and mortgages and stuff, but that wouldn’t have mattered now. Me and Niklas (Stålvind / vocals, guitar)had a long talk about that, we talked about financial difficulties and helping each other out, but there were two members that didn’t want to do the tour. That set us back, of course. And then we were supposed to go to the States three or four times, which is a different story but still the same thing, if you know what I mean. If you’re going to do this you have to give 110%, otherwise there’s no point. This is for real, but we’re also a band that doesn’t forget to have a good time. There’s a limit to what a good time is, though, so when you stop caring about the stuff you’re playing live you shouldn’t be up there.”
“Towards the end of that period with The Black Flame we saw that Wolf was a team but there were guys that wanted to work on their own,” he continues. “Tobias (Kellgren / drums) was restless and just wanted to move on – I think there were bigger issues as well – and Mikael (Goding / bass) was just tired of all the business behind it. He wanted to be at the rehearsal space playing Saxon and Iron Maiden songs on a Tuesday night (laughs). I get that, but this is a band and a business, so you have to take the whole package. For me there’s no better thing than playing live. I don’t care is the stage is two-by-two meters and there’s 20 people or 20-by-20 and ten thousand people, a gig is a gig and there’s no better feeling.”

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