Alberta thrasher punks, Wolfrik, have an eclectic sound, to say the least when describing their music. For starters, lead singer Dylan Toews’ archetypal bellows – at times, redolent of Scott Sturgeon (Leftover Crack, Chocking Victim) – swim anxiously through some seriously ripping melodic metal solos, and dreamy face-melters to almost give the impression that this could be what crack rock sounds like if it didn’t pawn all their guitars. Dual harmonies provided by Kevin Perry and Mark Seifiddine, and a fast-as-fuck rhythm section in Luca Properzi (carpel tunnel) and Nathan Troock (involuntary muscle spasms) bring together the weird, disquieted melodic thrash-punk anomaly that is Wolfrik, and their album, Skeleton City which somehow emerges the disparate haze, as a seamless and functioning… fucking really good debut EP.
Skeleton City was originally self-released by Wolfrik last Spring on CD and digital formats. It has since been picked up for a vinyl reissue by Thousand Island Records (North America) and Lockjaw Records (Europe), with the vinyl release set for March 1, 2019. You can order those at each respective link provided above.
Wolfrik has a 16-date European tour lined-up in support of the Skeleton City. Check out those dates as well as the neurotically perturbed lyrics, with a breakdown of their meaning from vocalist, Dylan Toews, below. Enjoy!
Hey, it’s Dylan from Wolfrik and this is a short explanation to all the scribbled chunks of mental chaos that have transformed into lyrics for our songs. Hope you enjoy.
Sarcophagus
This is one of the funnest songs on the album in my opinion. Whereas some of the other songs have a more realistic theme, this song is written purely for entertainment. It’s brutal and it’s metal because… fuck it. That’s part of the appeal of writing music and lyrics, you can make up a story and write whatever the hell you want to. And in this case, I wrote a song about a team of archaeologists who uncover an ancient tomb that when opened, released hell and fury upon an unsuspecting world. A deadly gas is emitted and melts the faces off of its victims, which in turn is shown by Kevin Perry melting some faces off during his guitar solo. I’ve always loved how terribly evil the lyrics of Trever Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder) can be. The way he describes the horror of the world ending in Everything Went Black definitely had some influence on at least the idea of this song.
Like peeling back the scab of an old forgotten wound
Infection festers with haste and the host succumbs to inevitable doom
Take care unknowing child for your end is coming soon
That which was laid in ages past escaped
A fume a wretched gas
Consuming all that it contacts skin will sear across the earth
Once thought of as superstition
Burned beyond all recognition
The signs were there but no one listened
Now the tortured screams of its victims fill the air
You cannot hope to make peace with the beast unleashed upon the world
Despite your pleas disease breeds deep within the crowded streets
The blood will curdle
Vengeance flows like venom from the mouth of the serpent
Thrashing out in cold blood at the unsuspecting vermin
Armageddon threats
Oh God
Entombed within the catacombs he rotted
Confined for a crime he did not commit
The unmerciful rage that evolved in that cage withstood an age
Warned but no one cared
Nails
Nails. The sad tale of a man dragging his broken, hungover-as-fuck body through the course of a work day over and over again. A modern tragedy. This song tries to voice the frustration that comes from constantly being in a self-inflicted disadvantaged state. Riffs for this track first came into play on the anniversary of a change in life direction, which is also heavily reflected in the lyrics. Questionable choices, among other things, resulted in the end of a relationship and the haunts get a little louder when you’re hungover day after day. Sometimes things come back.
It’s been a couple years and a couple nails since we saw the roof fall through
The collapse left me deaf and struggling to find what I could reuse
Every swing beats in a rhythm
I’m pounding away
To get this fucking building to speak my name
The creaks and groans only serve to show me that the walls are far past repair
And the foundation has been rubble for an age
The slab has cracked the surface is decayed
Rot has taken hold
The mould has resolved to infiltrate every single pore to the core
It’s always hungry for more
Gnawing away like a rat on a dead limb
Tearing apart our last leg
Mud logged dragging boots towards another couple wasted hours and hours and hours
I’m bleeding time again
Miles away from where we began
The clock doesn’t move backwards when you’re hanging from the rafters
We were burning at both ends
We were burning
We were on fire you and I
We were burning alive
It’s been a couple ties and a couple rails since you had ahold of me
That cutline is overgrown but I’m still haunted by that ringing
I thought I drowned you in the lake
I thought the current dragged you away
Flailing in the white wash I thought I pissed you right out of my mind
And I can barely stay awake
I’m walking wired trying to get away
I’m falling down the staircase I used to get out of the muck and the mire
We were on fire
We were burning alive
Every swing beats in a rhythm
I cut and I grind and I wish someone would tell me what the fuck is going on in my mind
I dread meeting with you every single night because the fucking sun erases every trace of you and I
Every trace of you and I is erased by the pale sunrise
Predator
Fun fact about Predator; The name came around years ago and was all based on hockey. There was a game the Edmonton Oilers played and the announcer was describing the player Raffi Torres as a predator on the ice. We started laughing about this at band practice right around the time the first riffs were being written and boom, a Predator was risen. The whole song is written from the perspective of a predator (…..) who is stalking its prey through a cold and desolate winter. Motivation for the song wasn’t hard to come by, as it gets pretty fucking chilly up here sometimes. The lyrics try and show the desperation and despair that comes from being trapped in a cycle that continually brings you back to where you don’t want to be.
“Don’t look back on your tracks, they’ll only lead you to nowhere again”
I can’t help the way my heart rate rises when you’re on the run again
My mouth poised in the snarl of a beast a shaky smile crooked nose and yellow teeth
Can you count the endless months and weeks that you’ve been praying for my grips release?
And I’ll always be watching you
As the chill air encompasses I’ve got my eye on you
Deep within this frozen waste in the silence and solitude of this place
The scent of your fear gives you away there will never be an escape
Running but you’ll never find a place where you can finally hide
I’m the foot on your heel that drives you stumbling and smiling into another white wall
You say you hate me but you always crawl back into my arms
Looking for warmth in my frigid embrace
In this story which one of us is the predator?
You’ve got a long way to go through endless fields of snow before you’ll ever find home
Don’t look back on your tracks they’ll only lead you to nowhere again
You are snow-blind
This winter drives you straight into my reach
Far beyond the northern lights where dormant creatures wait to rise
Blackened fingertips scream mercy burrowing frantically through snowy deep
Running but we both can see that you’re never going to get away from me
Dancing to the rushing of your pulse the sky sheds light on this grim assault
You can’t help the way my soft gaze cuts you to the very core again
Don’t look back on your tracks they’ll only lead you to nowhere again
You are snow-blind
Is the ice cracking under the weight of your regret?
Underneath the mask of normality I creep
Deep within the evergreens where no-one will ever hear you scream
There is no hope there are no dreams blood pours out your face in a pitiful stream
Running but we both have found that you’re always going to come back around
I’m the hand that leads the blind into the wild to be ravaged by the wolves
Crowbar
Crowbar, originally named Crowbar Hotel, is much different than the rest of the songs on the EP. Compared to all the others this has multiple characters which try and symbolically follow a true story. For the sake of privacy I won’t go too far into details, but there was someone close to the band who was false imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. Its a fucked up story, and this is our tribute to the incidents that occurred. There are three characters, theres a canine theme, and a psychedelic element. Think of it as Air Bud takes mushrooms and goes to jail. Something like that.
If he would’ve known what would arise in that house he would’ve lit a match and burned that mother
fucker down
Infatuated with the lust of another tongue his nostrils flared at the scent of another gazing on his marrow
Paws off
She never saw his eyes glowing with the most venomous lust or his mouth curled up in a snarl like a dog
Sweat gleaming against the neon lights
Never saw it coming cause she never saw nothing at all
She never heard the panting of a traitor she never expected the instigator
Blinded by fear and a curdling stomach she saw the bite marks but she don’t know who done it
Intoxicated with the lies of a lovers lips she’ll suck him dry exposing the very teeth that tore out her
fucking pride
The walls opened their eyes on that fateful evening
The house starting shifting the carpet was breathing
And under the breath of that weathered building a curse was uttered and a spirit awakened
The cauldron boiled under a crimson moon
Repugnant aroma of impending doom
Burn out your throat embrace the gloom
You won’t be leaving here anytime soon
She never saw his eyes glowing with the most venomous lust or his teeth bared threatening to sink into
her neck
Her brush with raised bristles was blinded by the fact that the sky was overcome by a blanket of black
Incarcerated for the bite of another dog he sits and waits while the snarling bastard chews on his broken
bone
And as he sits away
Locked away for countless days
Every time he closes his eyes he sees her face
He didn’t take a bite but still was somehow blamed for the feast
Skeleton City
The name Skeleton City arose during the aftermath of a music festival. After a night of heavy partying, everyone stumbled out of their tents, brains still half fogged, and somehow the joke came up that everyone around looked like a bunch of skeletons. God damn liquor logged skeletons. A whole tent city full of them…… and Skeleton City was born. The name may have been birthed at that festival, but the content was taken from a wide variety of shared and individual experiences. Liquor, for better or worse played a vital role in the creation, production, and continued execution of the song. Mark and Kevin both had significant contributions to the lyrics as well.
I waited patiently as the the sun surfaced above the horizon
The first beams of light were eager to display the waste that lay behind me
To the naked eye it looked like a backdrop to fucking paradise
The difference between my vision and yours is just too broad naw it ain’t the same
Acknowledgement of this desperation only speeds up this degradation
Acceptance of the knife embedded only painfully points out the damage
Tell me what’s the use in keeping a crippled horse that keeps on bleeding
If he had a choice would he will it would he patch the wound or bite the bullet?
I’m walking scared and alone but the jump in my step won’t keep me up
Through a city built on bones
Oblivious delirious disgusted with this fucking crust
Sobriety is dangerous so drink you will and drink you must
The thing that sparks this damage is the thing that I hold dearest
I am fighting fires with gasoline
I’m fighting bullets with these screams
I’m fighting madness with insanity but this fucking bitch is killing me
Flatlining low was once my only foe
These cold and weak veins are flowing once again
In grace you will accept what you know you can never mend
I’m walking scared and alone but the jump in my step won’t keep me up
This skeleton city is my home
The darkness dissipates as the light shines on the city gates
The sound of screams still resonates
Though ages past can’t be replaced
With a bottle up I’ll meet my fate
Within these walls of bones and waste
And I’ll drown this city in gasoline
Hope you dug the words!
Cheers,
Wolfrik