
There may not have been a full moon out but the creatures of the night showed up in force as Germany's Powerwolf, one of the top power metal bands in the world brought their Heavy Metal Mass to The Factory in Dallas as part of their first ever American tour.
The show began with a fun set from Florida's Seven Kingdoms. The band is led by the husband and wife duo of guitarist Camden Cruz and vocalist Sabrina Valentine. In a funny moment following some technical difficulties early in their set, Valentine entertained the crowd with an acapella rendition of "Tiny Bubbles" (her vocal warmup song) while the problem was fixed. Highlights included "Chasing the Mirage" and "The Water Dance." The combination of their great attitude and great songs surely won the band even more fans this night.
Finally! The moment the metal congregation had been waiting for arrived as one by one the members of Powerwolf took the stage to a thunderous ovation. Despite being a Monday night, The Factory was packed to the rafters with metalheads.
For those who are unfamiliar with the band, Powerwolf relies heavily on theatrics for their live state show. Each of the band members appear in corpsepaint and costumes that represent the character and fictional history they portray. Their music consists of legendary tales of good and evil, werewolves and vampires, and the Catholic Church. While the majority of their songs are in English, some are in Latin and German as well.
While some bands will use having a strong image to cover up for their lack of talent, that couldn't be any farther from the case with Powerwolf. The songs are operatic and bombastic and range from the truly epic to fist pumping anthems.
Lead vocalist "Atilla Dorn" is an incredible frontman. As his powerful vocals filled the air, he held the crowd in the palm of his hand. They would sing, clap, chant, jump and even howl like a wolf on command. When not playing keyboards, "Falk Maria Schlegel" acted as a hype man, taking center stage and driving fans even farther into a frenzy. Guitarists "Matthew Greywolf" and his "brother" "Charles Greywolf" ran wild from side to side while shredding for the faithful. Meanwhile drummer Roel van Helden (his real name actually) brought down the thunder.
This was one of those rare shows where every song could have been a highlight but standouts included the fist pumping metal anthem "Amen and Attack," the big sing along to "Armata Strigoi," the catchy as Hell "Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend," the epic power ballad "Where the Wild Wolves Have Gone" and the closing numbers "We Drink Your Blood" and "Werewolves of Armenia." A funny moment occurred right before the final song when some fans cried out for them to play their latest single "Thy Will Be Done" from their forthcoming album and Dorn replied back, "No! MY will be done!" and launched into "Werewolves of Armenia."
As The Metal Mass came to a close, fans new and old were grateful to have had the opportunity to see their German Metal Heroes and join their pack. Considering how well this tour has been attended and the ridiculous amount of merch they sold, let's hope it won't be long before The Wolves return to the U.S. This will easily go down as one of the year's best concerts.