WOLFMANGLER - My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Wolves
The first WOLFMANGLER album, now out of print. Released by Digitalis Industries as part of their Foxglove series in November 2004. CD-R limited to 89 copies. Music recorded live on September 30, 2004, most vocals overdubbed October 9, 2004. The lineup was: E.A. Korson (electric guitar, voice, mimic), D. Smolken (bass, voice, umber hulk), the rev. C.L. Umper (electric bass, bajo sexto, water nymph), and A. Wolfings (drums, cello banjo, electric bass, acid blob). Includes a cover of Dead Raven Choir's "Irrlichter".

Jesień
Irrlichter
The World's A Stage
Jesień

Reviews

Metal Archives
June 18, 2005
Author: thegaunt
Rating: 90%
I was under the influence that this was a doom metal project of the incredibly prolific D.Smolken of Kult act DEAD RAVEN CHOIR.Upon first listen I was taken aback by the sheer lack of volume I would normally associate with Doom. What I found instead was, sparse, somber, plodding funerary tones....moving at a decaying pace.This release follows the similar path of the more folk oriented material by DRC.Classic poems put to a back drop of figuritive soundscapes.Far more organic than the folkish movements I'm familiar with. This is mostly what sounds like cello moans and plucked notes, from what could be dulcimer or banjo,and very sparse percussion.The vocals are pretty low in the mix, mostly whispers......and a couple of howling outbursts. It took a few listens to figure out whether or not I liked this paticular monster.I find that it has grown on me.For quiet moments of brooding and reflection on your miserable life.Recommended for those looking for something dark spirited and different.

Foreshadow Magazine
March 13, 2005
Rating: 3.5/5
If any guitar wants to kill any wolf, it must be D. Smolken's guitar. This Polish musician living in The United States is probably best known for his now defunct project Dead Raven Choir as well as Garlic Yarg. With Wolfmangler he explores deep realms of slow, depressive music much based on heavy bass droning.
The whole thing lasts nearly 40 minutes and consists of four tracks with opening and closing ones being titled identically - "Jesien". The first one (instrumental) introduces you to the world of wolves and the last one (with Polish lyrics) leads you away from it. With addition of three more musicians who play electric guitar, electric bass, bajo sexto, drums, cello banjo and more, Wolfmangler create slow and heavy music with funeral atmosphere which, although dealing with different musical genre, resembles somehow the spirit of both Dead Raven Choir and Garlic Yarg. I would even dare to say that Wolfmangler draws from both those projects and some influences are clearly "visible" in the newest embodiment of Smolken's lupus music. Basically, it's a highly experimental stuff with a huge dose of heaviness, odd sounds and low spoken & hummed vocals. I guess it's something for fans of drone music, heavy doom and even experimental noise. Another interesing project from Smolken. Now, I can rest comforted - before I was aware of Wolfmangler, I had already been worrying because of demise of Dead Raven Choir. I am sure Wolfmangler is something to keep an eye on in the future.

Riffrock
December 23, 2004
This is a pretty limited CDR release of the newest project from Smolken, best known for his solo work as Dead Raven Choir. This is like a cross between the eerie "folk" vibe of that material and a wildly experimental take on Doom metal. Anybody who digs stuff like Esoteric and the more extended Corrupted material ought to check this out and have their mind blown proper.

Aversionline
November 17, 2004
Rating: 6/10
This is the latest band featuring Smolken from the now defunct Dead Raven Choir, and this is somewhat similar in general aesthetic, though slower, but still basically sparse and rather unusual. The majority of the music for this release was recorded live, with only the vocals being added in after the fact (in most cases). The instrumental "Jesien" (the shortest track at merely 4:37) begins with nothing but rumbling bass drones, twisted scraped/pulled strings, and lots of random improvisational noise textures created with stringed instruments for a somewhat uneventfully improvisational opener. This flows into the start of "Irrlichter", which lays in some slightly melodic sustained lead guitar notes (briefly) before introducing some faintly whispered vocals minutes later, carrying on for more than 14 minutes. "The World's a Stage" opens slightly louder and more ominously, with soft vocals coming in quickly and reaching more of a spoken tone. This piece has some percussive background sounds and a generally more resonant and aggressive string attack from the instrumentation, though still very slowly flowing and sparse as a whole. The final selection is also called "Jesien", this time topping 12 minutes, and using a deep half-speed track underneath live recordings at regular speed, making for a very full sounding piece that has a bit more constant ambience to it. Certainly the most bleak and impressive selection on this disc. The recording definitely sounds live. It's not so bad, though. A little raw, a little muffled, but nice and warm, with a good sense of pulsing low-end thickness. I'm not really into the guitar tone, something about the distance makes it come off as a little unnatural and unassuming, but guitars play a small role, so that's not a big deal. Aside from some poor typeface choices on the back cover, the packaging looks exceptionally awesome for a simple little xeroxed sleeve. All of the imagery is sinister and abstract, with a transparency of the illegible (yet awesome) band logo over the cover in barely visible black on black. There's no insert or anything, but the inside cover is hand-numbered of only 89 copies, with credits on the back indicating that most of the lyrics are borrowed from the works of poets (Rainer Maria Rilke, Hilaire Belloc, and Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski). All in all this is an interesting and promising release, but one that I find boring. I like the approach, but it needs some more meat on its bones to really start to take form and become as effective as it could be. The cover art on this thing is seriously amazing, so perhaps I'm guilty of getting my hopes up too high based on that, but there's enough intrigue here to where I truly feel the parties involved could do much, much stronger work. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Maelstrom
May 2005
Rating: 6.5/10
Author: Rod Togam
Wolfmangler's music is most characteristically droning, monotonous, repetitive and sluggish. This is quite a compliment, as it's probably the exact goal that was aimed for.
That is what happens when you blend guitar, bass, voice, sort-of-Indian drums, bajo sexto, cello, and more and more, attempting to make them sound all identical. One is left in a carpet of bleak imagery, a space surprising in its flatness and dryness, aiming at creating an atmosphere in any possible way, besides the obvious compositional one. Try to imagine experimental King Crimson, omitting the music.
Does it work? Well, it depends on what your aim at. Yes, a relatively interesting effect is generated, not derived of originality and uniqueness. Also, it is undoubtable that the group had experienced great feelings of pioneering satisfaction and enjoyment while creating this (mostly live recorded ) piece. Should anyone actually like to listen to the album? Perhaps, in certain contexts, in an attempt to achieve a very specific effect.
So, My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Wolves is a definitely unusual, sort of interesting, maybe worth listening to album. For those who long for basements with no humidity.