England is well known to most people for a couple of things; English people, black pudding, The Royal Family, Thatcher, inbreeding, hippies, crusties, hooligans, etcetera. This sets the scene for England’s less well known and small but persistent power-electronics scene. One of the more established acts in this scene is The Grey Wolves.
The Grey Wolves started out more than a decade ago making industrial in the more classical ‘throbbing gristle’ vein. Then they became involved with the power electronics side of things. Power electronics is the more politically oriented vein of ‘old school’ industrial, in which texts/vocals play an important role. Noise with an MC so to speak. This scene is often associated with extremist politics, and the Grey Wolves are no exception to this. They dubbed their activities ‘cultural terrorism’ and controversial subjects are certainly not avoided. I’m never quite sure what kind of politics these kinds of bands are preaching as the texts always are too noisy to listen to. So I guess it’s more to do with the atmosphere, or more likely the shock value of it all. The Grey Wolves have also got a reputation for their very aggressive live shows.
This CD is a re-release and a remix of an older tape that was released right after the Gulf-war and that was inspired by the Gulf-war. It contains two long tracks, in a style that is more industrial than power electronics, as there are no recognizable vocals. It contains low-fi industrial structures with some samples from the gulf war. It is not particularly heavy of threatening. It reminds me of other tape releases from that time, and therefore it forms a nice reminder of a scene that is now almost gone.
The Grey Wolves are often associated with acts Like Genocide Organ, Anenzephalia, and certainly with Con-Dom, with which they did countless collaborations. I would not recommend this CD as a first introduction to The Grey Wolves, and would instead recommend some newer material. But if you’re interested in the past of this group, this release is a good option. It was released on the Cold Spring label, that has done lots of interesting industrial releases and is well worth checking out.
