By Jim Rowland
Way back in 1989 things were looking very rosy for Brit rockers Wolfsbane. Signed to Def American, and with the legendary Rick Rubin in the producer’s chair, their debut album ‘Live Fast Die Fast’ was released to much acclaim. Now, 36 years later, those songs have been dusted down, re-imagined and re-recorded for ‘Live Faster’, a brand new version of that acclaimed debut.
Recorded by the exact same line-up that recorded ‘Live Fast Die Fast’, this time the band themselves were in the collective producer’s chair, with guitarist Jase Edwards taking the lead, allowing them to reclaim the first album as the band would have wanted it.
The album retains the same track listing and running order, and realistically must have been on a much tighter budget, but the result is a version that as a consequence is raw, loud and in-yer-face, with some of the original production ‘smoothing’ squeezed out.
It has also allowed the band to tinker with the arrangements to their liking, with a prime example being on ‘Fell Out Of Heaven’, where they restored an original bass guitar intro that was omitted first time round. Perhaps Blaze Bayley’s voice is a tad battle-scarred in places, but retains that unique character, and with the likes of ‘Man Hunt’ and ‘I Like It Hot’ in the track listing, a great song remains a great song.
Perhaps to be looked upon as a companion piece rather than a replacement for ‘Live Fast Die Fast’, ‘Live Faster’ is a raw, fun and energy packed re-working of those early days and proves, as will the upcoming gigs where they perform the album, that there is plenty of life in the old wolf yet.
- ‘Live Faster‘ is released tomorrow (Friday 18 July).
- Wolfsbane play KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton on Sunday (20 July), Venue 23 in Wakefield next Thursday (24 July) and the Steelhouse Festival on Friday 25 July. They then support The Almighty at the end of November.
