“There are two things I like; playing heavy metal and talking about it.”

This from Wolf guitar Johannes “Axeman” Losbäck, kicking off an uncomplicated non-interview covering the latest escapades of what may be the ultimate no-bullshit band. Currently pushing their new album, Ravenous, Losbäck and his bandmates have retained their down-to-earth metalhead optimism in spite of Fate doing it’s best to muck up the works, happy to be back doing what they love without having to make compromises. Ravenous is for all intents and puposes a case of Wolf making up for lost time, what with their 2007 outing The Black Flame fizzling out much sooner than it should have given the buzz surrounding it upon release. Not that there was anything wrong with the record. It was considered their strongest album ever at the time, making the band’s lack of visibility on the live circuit positively criminal. Wolf are well on their way to picking up the pieces, and Losbäck insists things will be very different this time out.

“What happened with The Black Flame is we got so many opportunities and so many people interested in us, but we blew it because we said no to so many things. We had members in the band that didn’t want to do this show or fly there and do a gig for break-even money, but that’s what you’ve got to do. We’ve always said that we’re working class, we like to get our hands dirty, but it was like four guys with the same job and two of them were sleeping in. That wasn’t good enough. If you want to be a part of this you have to be willing to take on everything that comes your way.”

The opportunities Wolf gave up were significant according to Losbäck.

“We said no to two months 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.”

Turning attention to Ravenous, it’s yet another platter of trademark Wolf metal. Straightforward and to the point, carved from the soul with an “if ain’t broke don’t fix it” AC/DC attitude even if the band’s approach was slightly different this time out.

“We’ve stayed true to what Wolf has always been about, and that’s why Ravenous is good,” states Losbäck. “It’s been two-and-a-half years since we did The Black Flame and we had line-up changes for the better. Niklas was concentrating more on the writing more than he ever has before, and I contributed even more on this album compared to the last one. I wasn’t afraid that my stuff wouldn’t be good enough, and Niklas would never say ‘Let’s put this song on the album to make him happy.’ He’s honest about that; he has no problem saying it if he thinks something is crap, and I’m the same way because we’ve known each other a long time. When you’re comfortable with what you’re doing there are no ego problems. I can write 666 songs just playing around with ideas, but it has to have the right feel for this band.”

Replacing Goding and Kellgren on Ravenous are Anders Modd and Richard Holmgren respectively. Wolf is back to full strength, with all four members on the same page.

“When you get the right people back in the band it feels great,” says Losbäck. “I’ve known Anders for many years. He used to be in Tad Morose and I’m a fan of their stuff. I remember when they came out with the Modus Vivendi album, I thought it was the best Swedish metal album ever (laughs). I knew that Tad Morose wasn’t doing anything and that he really looking to get out there again, so we asked him to jump in and do few gigs to see where it would take him because he was still with Tad Morose at the time. He made his first appearance with us at the Bloodtsock Festival and actually introduced himself by doing a striptease on stage (laughs). But, he’s been around, he knows the business, and he’s a great guy and knows his metal. There’s no beating around the bush, he’s all ‘take it or leave it’ just like us.”

Wolf’s detractors will quite naturally dismiss Ravenous as being a blueprint of everything in the band’s existing catalogue. The band members could care less, boasting an international legion of fans as testament to their enduring appeal. Asked if he or Stålvind were at all concerned about the “blueprint” trap going in to do Ravenous, Losbäck blows it off as irrelevant.

“We wouldn’t mind doing a second Black Wings.” he admits. “I mean, we do this because we love it and we celebrate it. We can’t think in those terms. We don’t think like ‘Oh, people like ‘I Will Kill Again’; let’s write another song like that.’ We write 14 or 15 songs, record them all, and drop one or two along the way because when you listen to them from a distance you can hear which songs don’t fit. It might be a good fucking song that you stand by, but you have to put it in this package. We’re never worried about repeating ourselves. Some people might think that, but we’ve been around since ’95 so we quite obviously just don’t care (laughs).”
“There might have been a point in Wolf’s career at the very beginning where the band was overthinking everything,” Losbäck adds. “I’m 34 years old now and I don’t think about that. I just plug in and play. What comes out comes out, and if you don’t like it that’s fine. If you do, join the party.”

Comparisons to Iron Maiden, which have both plagued Wolf and earned them praise since their inception, have lessened considerably since the release of The Black Flame. And while the occasional guitar melody on Ravenous is sure to remind one of the UK legends, Losbäck reveals Wolf have in fact traded one comparison in for another that’s just as complimentary.

“The coat fits now and people know that’s going to come out in our sound. At the beginning people would say ‘I like them because they sound like Iron Maiden.’ Nowadays it’s ‘I like them. Period.’ But where would we be without that comparison? We get a lot of Mercyful Fate comparisons these days, which is great. All I can say to that is thank you goddamn very much (laughs). We could do a lot worse. If people want to compare my riffs to Dave Murray or Hank Shermann… please continue (laughs). So, those comparisons come with respect nowadays.

“The Iron Maiden comparison was justified and it still is, and for us it’s a compliment. We love hearing that. Bruce Dickinson plays our stuff on his BBC rock show on Friday nights, and that doesn’t suck. He even played our version of ‘Deja-Vu’ and liked it. If he would think Wolf is a rip-off band somehow I don’t think he’d be doing that.”