WOLVES LIKE US
Late Love
Prosthetic
Rating: 
In winter, there are parts of Norway that see mere hours of sunlight per day. We’re not sure, but it sounds like those are the parts that produced Wolves Like Us, a quartet of Nordic ax men whose grungy bluster veils a fjord-size heartbreak lurking underneath. On swaggering, big-bottomed cuts like “Old Dirty Paranoia” and “We Speak in Tongues,” frontman Lars Kristensen’s menacing but clear voice cuts through the post-punk haze like a blast of arctic air. “Secret Handshakes” suggests that there’s some soft-packed snow below the ice. As his band eschews metal sludge for minor-chord riffage, Kristensen bellows like a bluesman over a deal gone wrong—either with a woman, the devil, or both.
