Music / Powerwolf

Catholic Vampires and Werewolves^{From Left to Right:}Roel Van Helden, Falk Maria Schlegel, Attila Dorn, Matthew and Charles Greywolf

Powerwolf is a German power metal band formed in 2003. Their gimmick is mixing tropes traditionally associated with Catholicism and the Catholic priesthood with Vampires and Werewolves, creating a vision of a world where the Priesthood is run by an army of undead.

Current members:

• Attila Dorn - Lead vocals
• Falk Maria Schlegel – Keyboards
• Matthew Greywolf – Guitars
• Charles Greywolf – Guitars, studio bass
• Roel van Helden – Drums

Past Members:

• Stefan Gemballa – drums (2003-2010)
• Tom Diener – drums (2010-2011)

Discography:

Albums:

• Return in Bloodred (2005)
• Lupus Dei (2007)
• Bible of the Beast (2009)
• Blood of the Saints (2011)
• Preachers of the Night (2013)
• Blessed & Possessed (2015)
  • Metallum Nostrum (re-released on its own in 2019)
• The Sacrament of Sin (2018)
  • Communio Luporum
• Best of the Blessed (2020)
• Call of the Wild (2021)
• Interludium (2023)
• Wake Up the Wicked (2024)

EPs:

• Wolfsnächte 2012 - Tour EP (2012)
• The Rockhard Sacrament (2013)
• Wolfsnächte 2015 - Tour EP (2015)

Live records:

• Alive in the Night (2012)
• The Metal Mass Live (2016)
• Preaching at the Breeze (2017)
• The Live Sacrament (2020) ^note  Only available as a Bonus Disc on various editions of Best of the Blessed and not separately

Box sets:

• Trinity in Black (2011)
• The History of Heresy I (2014)
• The History of Heresy II (2014)

Music & Lyric videos:

• We Drink Your Blood (2011)
• Sanctified With Dynamite (2012)
• Amen & Attack (2013)
• Army of the Night (2015)
• Armata Strigoi (2015)
• Demons Are A Girl's Best Friend (2018)
• Fire & Forgive (2018)
• Incense & Iron (2018)
• Beast of Gévaudan (2021)

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The band gives us these examples:

• Action Bomb: This is what happens when you are "Sanctified With Dynamite!", a song about suicide bombing.
• Alliterative Title: The band really seems to like songs that are in the "Letter & Letter" format, examples like Amen & Attack, Christ & Combat, Demons & Diamonds, Incense & Iron, and Murder at Midnight.
• Audience Participation Song: A few, but "Armata Strigoi" has Dorn lead the crowd through a call-and-response session prior to launching into the song so they can sing along during the bridge.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Eluveitie's cover of "Ira Sancti - When the Saints Are Going Wild" is a Gag Dub of the song where the lyrics call for a lady to bring some beer.
  • "Stossgebet" means "a hurried prayer." In other words, a quickie.
• Blasphemous Boast: To Catholics, shouting "Ave Maria!" at the moment of climax is seen as extremely blasphemous. Especially given the context of the rest of the song "Coleus Sanctus!"
• Blood Knight: And overlapping with Knight Templar in add. Most of the characters are Catholic zealots killing in the name of God and their in-universe version of the Catholic Church. But since they are also vampires and werewolves, they're also extremely interested by the bloodshed in itself.
• Canis Latinicus: Many, many times they use Latin taken from the old Tridentine Mass, only altered to change things for their particular mix of Catholicism, Vampires and lycanthropy. A lot of their songs contain corruptions of the Latin used in the traditional Tridentine Mass.
  • For example, here in the video for "Armata Strigoi", we see the prayer "Lupus Dei Peccata Mundi Misere Nobis" - "Wolf of God, who takes away the sins of the world."^note  it is usually "Agnus Dei Peccata Mundi Misere Nobis" "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."
• Captain Obvious:
  • from titles alone: "Vampires Don't Die" And "Dead Boys Don't Cry".
  • In "Dead boys Don't Cry", they state "Dead boys don't cry, because they can't die."
• Church Militant: And so extreme they also qualify both as Blood Knight and Knight Templar.
  "Christ of Mercy is unknown to us" (Wolves of War)
• Cover Album: Metallum Nostrum, a bonus disc from Blessed and Possessed, with the band covering classic metal songs that inspired their own style, including Shot in the Dark, The Evil That Men Do, Headless Cross, A Touch of Evil and Night Crawler. The album was rereleased on its own in early 2019, including its first pressing on vinyl.
  • Not by them, but of them, the bonus disk Communio Luporum from The Sacrament of Sin is ten covers of Powerwolf's songs, done by: Epica^note Sacred & Wild, Saltatio Mortis^note We Drink Your Blood, Caliban^note Kiss of the Cobra King, Battle Beast^note Resurrection by Erection, Heaven Shall Burn^note Night of the Werewolves, Kadavar^note The Evil Made Me Do It, Kissin Dynamite^note Let There Be Night, Mille Petrozza with Marc Gortz^note Amen & Attack, Amaranthe^note Army of the Night, and Eluveitie^note When the Saints Are Going Wild.
• Cover Changes The Meaning: Alissa's version of Demons are a Girl's Best Friend changed the Fanservice heavy original into a women's empowerment song.
• Cyborg: The Beast of Gévaudan is described as "half-wolf and half-machine."
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to most European power metal bands.
  • Since Alissa White-Gluz is a Death Metal singer, her version of Demons are a Girl's Best Friend is possibly the most brutal thing Powerwolf has ever done. Ironically though the music video (while still full of Fanservice) is tamer than the original.
• Double Entendre: "Stossgebet" has at least three meanings - first, it can mean "whispered/rushed prayer", which fits the band's and the song's surface-level religious appearance. Second, it can mean "pound prayer", and "pound" can carry the same sexual implications in German as in English, which fits the sexual nature of the translated lyrics of the song, glorifying the act of intercourse as a religious experience. Third, it can also be translated as "shock prayer", which fits with how outright sacrilegious the lyrics are.
• Gender Flip: Powerwolf has the song Demons are a Girl's Best Friend, the music video for which included a lot of Naughty Nuns in bras and panties. They later did another version with the lead singer being Alissa White-Gluz from the Melodic Death Metal band Archenemy. Alissa's version includes a lot of shirtless men beating each other up.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Romanian, considering the theme, it fits. Their song "Armata Strigoi" is Romanian for "Army - Vampires." Once in the song, right at the end, is the grammatically correct "Armata DE Strigoi" (Army OF Vampires.) used.
• Gratuitous German: Despite hailing from Germany, they sing almost all of their songs in English peppered with the occasional Latin phrase. Kreuzfeuer, Stossgebet and Glaubenskraft are the only exceptions, being sung entirely in German and Latin.
• Gratuitous Latin:
  • "Coleus Sanctus" means "Holy Balls" in Latin. The song is about the singer masturbating.
  • "Sanctus Dominus" is sung almost entirely in Latin, with only a handful of lines in English.
• Gratuitous Russian: Their song "Nochnoy Dozor" is Russian for "Night Watch", and is the Russian title of the novel.
• Heavy Mithril: Catholic vampires and werewolves, and some or all of them also worshipping the Devil.
• Horrible History Metal: Unlike most Powerwolf songs, "Christ and Combat" contains no mythical elements like vampires or werewolves, and is instead about the crusaders in the Siege of Antioch. They've also done a badass cover of the famous Gary Moore song "Out In The Fields".
  • Downplayed by "Beast of Gévaudan." The song is about the titular beast said to have stalked the French countryside of the titular province, but it’s far more about the beast’s legend (particularly the religious theories about the beast) than its historical record.
• The Immodest Orgasm: At the end of the Chorus of "Coleus Sanctus" the singer loudly proclaims "Ave Maria!" (Hail Mary!)
• The Remake: For their Greatest Hits Album Best of the Blessed, all songs featured that predate the Preachers of the Night Album^note Kiss of the Cobra King, Saturday Satan, In Blood we trust, Werewolves of Armenia, Resurrection by Erection, Sanctified with Dynamite and We drink your Blood were rerecorded. Some of these newer versions have more noticable changes from their respective originals than others.
  • Kiss of the Cobra King: The Drum intro is replaced with a pipe organ one, accompanied by choral arrangements. The lyrics (aside from the chorus) were also changed completely, thus changing the whole subject: The original dealt with the war between Romania and the Ottoman Empire under the rule of Vlad III (better known as Dracula); the Remake's lyrics are based upon the Book of Genesis.
  • Werewolves of Armenia: Several ambient sounds (such as hissing wind, thunder and a wolf howling) and background chants were added throughout the song. At the sime time, the "Haah!" shout at the end of the original was omitted. Also, instead of the second verse starting the same moment the first chorus ends, the main guuitar riff is repeated between the two.
  • Resurrection by Erection: The original started with the sounds of thunder and a woman screaming. These sounds are still present in the Remake, but are preceeded by a new, 10 seconds long intro, consisting of choral arrangements and a pipe organ playing (rather similar to the one Kiss of the Cobra King received).
  • We Drink your Blood: The intro synths are played at a higher pitch. Also, the reverb during the "We Drink your Blood" background shouts and during the intro when the guitars kick in is more pronounced.
• Intercourse with You: Another interpretation of "Coleus Sanctus" and the most obvious interpretation of "Resurrection by Erection."
• In the Style of: The bonus disk Communio Luporum from The Sacrament of Sin's is a Cover Album of Powerwolf's songs covered by various artists in their own style.

• Mythology Gag: The cover art for the upcoming Greatest Hits Album Best Of The Blessed features four prior wolf-priests from previous studio album arts; the mitre-wearing priest with the staff from Blood Of The Saints, the thorn-crowned priest from Blessed And Possessed, the crowned priest with the flaming crucifix from Preachers Of The Night, and the hooded priest from The Sacrament Of Sin. Makes sense, since this album includes numerous remastered versions of some of their biggest hits throughout the years.

• Naughty Nuns: In the music video for "Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend" six nuns are seduced by Attila and the demons he calls upon into stripping off their clothes and engaging in (mild) satanic orgy. The album artwork for the song takes it even further.
• Night of the Living Mooks: "Armata Strigoi" is a very long Badass Boast about an army of Catholic Vampires.
  • In "Incense and Iron," the undead are enemy soldiers.
• Nobody Loves the Bassist: ...well, more specifically, Nobody Loves Being the Bassist. Guitarist Charles Greywolf plays bass in the studio, but the band has no live bassist.
• Our Vampires and Werewolves Are Different: The Priesthood is actually full of vampires and werewolves, and the sacrament is literally flesh and blood.
• Power Ballad: "Where the Wild Wolves Have Gone", a surprisingly solemn track written like an eulogy for werewolves.
• Rhyming Title: Several of their albums, such as "Blessed & Possessed" and "Best of the Blessed".
• Sibling Team: The band was originally started by brothers Charles and Matthew Greywolf.
• Sinister Minister: The title character of "Cardinal Sin".
• Spell My Name With An S: Various websites list the Cover Album from The Sacrament of Sin's Deluxe edition as "Communio Lupatum", but the album itself lists it as "Communio Luporum".
• Twisted Eucharist: "We Drink Your Blood" is about vampires performing communion with actual blood.
• Vampire Vords: Attilla Dorn, the singer, while being German and speaking perfect German and English, speaks with a heavy Eastern European accent while on stage and also in interview, due to their band's army of undead plus Catholicism gimmick.
• Villain Song: A number of songs can qualify given that they're about various supernatural creatures typically portrayed as evil. A lot of times it's ambiguous enough to be interpreted as either Creepy Good or villainous. There are a few less ambiguous cases though.
  • "We Drink Your Blood" is about vampires performing Holy Communion with actual blood in place of wine, with explicit references to murdering people for the ritual.
  • "In The Name Of God" is notable since it's about actual crusaders rather than supernatural creatures. At first it seems like an aversion since the lyrics have an epic, righteous tone to them, seemingly portraying the crusaders as righteous and courageous warriors. In the second verse however, their true colors start to show as they sing about slaughtering and plundering with the same epic, courageous tone as before.
  Brothers in
  belief and sword.
  In times of blood and thunder.
  Strike for glory and reward.
  We came to kill and plunder!