Wolves didn’t arrive out of nowhere. Their self-titled debut full-length, out now via Ripcord Records, carries the weight of nearly a decade of tangled histories, abandoned projects, and shared scars. What started back in 2016 from the ashes of Bludger and other outfits like Finish Him!, Ashes Of Maybelle, and EFK has hardened into something sharper, heavier, and more deliberate.
The lineup—Mark Howes, Andy Price, Robbie Tewelde, Andy ‘Beard’ Rodger, and Ryan Tyrrell—first appeared under the name When The Wolf Comes Home with the “Gone Are The White Flags” EP in 2017.
That short record was raw and frantic, written in haste and performed with equal intensity. Live, the band earned a reputation for reckless sets alongside Sectioned, Urne, Renounced, and others, often leaving stages marked by flailing limbs, bruises, and blood. Then everything froze in 2020. Recording plans stalled, families grew, and real life got louder than the amps.
When Wolves returned in 2021, the goal wasn’t to simply pick up where they left off. As the band told us, the writing and recording process forced them to confront who they were and what they wanted to sound like. Four distinct voices thread through the record, each carrying different angles on its central themes: sleep paralysis, fatherhood, fascism, heartbreak, and survival.
What came up isn’t a scattered collection but a deliberate narrative, abrasive yet very cohesive. Drummer Robbie Tewelde handled the production himself, keeping the sound precise, unrelenting, and true to the band’s vision.
“It’s more than just an album to me, it’s my friends distilled into music and pressed on a disc,” guitarist Andy reflected when asked about the moment things clicked. Mark, for his part, joked that the more complex songs tended to land in a folder marked “let Mark sing on this one,” a nod to the instinctive way roles were shared.
Ryan’s sharp-edged parts, Beard’s growing confidence in both clean and harsh vocals, and Robbie’s constant push for heaviness all left their fingerprints on the final product.
The band didn’t lean on old material to pad the tracklist. As Andy put it, “For the most part this is all new. Well, as new as anything is. Coalesce said it best when they named their Led Zeppelin covers album ‘There’s nothing new under the sun.’” Mark added that “Reformed” carries echoes of a past Bludger track called “Shitler,” but beyond that, the record was built from the ground up.
Self-producing meant more time to experiment but also more pressure. “We’re phenomenally lucky to have someone like Robbie in the band,” Andy said, pointing to his clear vision and ability to “coax a massive sound out of us.” Without the cost of studio time looming, the band could push ideas further, though it stretched the timeline. Mark admitted that his real second-guessing only kicked in after the album was handed to Ripcord: “the crippling self doubt only came about when it became a distinct reality that people would actually hear it.”
Thematically, the record doesn’t circle one idea—it swings hard across personal, political, and existential ground. Songs wrestle with anti-fascism and bigotry, with the private dread of sleep paralysis, with the transitions of fatherhood and self-awareness, with grief and fractured relationships. Some moments lean into dark humor, others into despair, others into a kind of weary hope. As Beard explained about one of his own contributions, “‘Baby, I’m an anarchist’. Just the idea that a better future is possible for us all. And a little silly nod to the Ever Given for doing more to disrupt late stage capitalism than many of us could hope to.”
Live, these songs hit differently. The band admits the older material was written to allow more chaos on stage, while the new record demands more precision. “If the old set was a hurricane the set now is more like a series of tsunamis,” Mark said, noting that the payoffs now feel weightier. Andy added, “There’s not a song on the album that we wouldn’t play live – there’s no ‘album only’ tracks here.”
“Self Titled” is Wolves stepping fully into who they’ve been growing into since 2016. It’s scars, chaos, and unfinished business, pressed to disc.
Below, the band walk us through the full track by track commentary, song by song, followed by a detailed interview touching on their writing process, the push and pull of four vocalists, the decision to self-produce, and how it all translates to the stage.
Track by track:
1 – LEECHES
Music: (Ryan) After months in the rehearsal room nailing some really odd time signatures, we just wanted a 3 minute, 3 chord, verse+chorus+middle-8, “in your facer” next. We found a speed we liked, nailed a simple verse + chorus pattern pretty quickly, then figured that we’d tweak it with some odd-timed riffs splashed in there.
The first pass was a bit too comfortable, until Robbie came back with that stabby “take aim, take name, take blame” part, which really changed the feel of the song. Even though those stabs aren’t in a time signature we can nail down, the song feels like it loops naturally, so we locked it in without overthinking it!
Lyrical theme: (Ryan) The song is about obeying without question, and how that can snowball. I came across a few stories around the same time of people being groomed by people in power to do their dirty work for them and take the rap for it. That’s where the “take aim, take name, take blame” comes from. The idea that people find a role model and will follow them to the ends of the earth, taking their lead without their own thought process scares me. It’s something I think about a lot in how I’m raising my kids. I hope they realise that they’re able to question decisions made by people in power and social norms.
2 – Reformed (Try Love)
Music: (Robbie) – When we first started writing “Reformed (Try Love)” the goal was simple: go all in. We wanted something chaotic, aggressive, and unpredictable, raw energy, mathcore twists, sharp turns and pure sonic violence.
Think Dillinger Escape Plan vibes. So the first version definitely brought chaos. But if we’re being real, it sounded a bit too much like Dillinger. It was sick, but it didn’t feel like us. So we scrapped a lot of it and rebuilt it from the ground up. Kept the intensity, restructured it, brought in new sounds, and let the track breathe in our own way. And once it clicked, it hit way harder. Still wild, still heavy, but now it had our DNA stamped all over it. We had a blast making this one. Watching it evolve from something cool, but familiar, into something that truly represented us. It was a dope feeling!
Lyrical theme: Mark – written in the halcyon days of the Tories’ self immolation when they were banging on about national service and stopping the boats, we decided to take a swing at racists and bigots. Even though this wasn’t that long ago some of the names now sound dated or irrelevant (Truss..??), but if we were to rewrite it today the whole song would just be a list of cunts.
3 – A Stolen Horse
Music: One of our jazzier excursions. You can hear lots of great contributions from every member in this one. I love all the layers in clean sections. This is a fun one live.
Lyrical theme: Beard – When I’m not playing music I work in the film industry. A few years back I was chatting with a German actress (Meika Droste) between takes. She asked me about any egos or spats in the band. I explained that there weren’t any really and I couldn’t imagine playing with a better bunch of people.
She said “Oh, they’re your ‘someone to steal horses with’”.
Apparently it’s a uniquely German expression which means ‘someone you can trust well enough and to commit a crime with’. That stuck with me. I think of the guys as accomplices more than band mates. As if we’re somehow getting away with musical crimes.
‘A Stolen Horse’ is a reminder to spend time with people that lift you up. “Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think”- a reference to The Specials. I hear Jules sing this every year on New Year’s Eve and each time it feels like better advice.
4 – All or Something
Music: (Robbie) – I had this track sitting in my catalogue for a while, originally meant for another band. But the more I listened, the more it felt like a better fit for Wolves. I brought it to the guys, and they were instantly into it. We were aiming for that hardcore punk energy, raw, aggressive, but still tight with a solid groove. It started out as a straight up, in your face track. Then Ryan, Andy and Beard started layering in some epic moments over the riffs we had, and it totally shifted the vibe. The middle section turned into something way bigger with a cinematic edge. We were all hyped with how it turned out, especially with the gnarly beatdowns in the final sections of the track. It was really fun!
(Andy) – There were lots of discussions about the end of the song, originally it was a lot faster, but this one felt like a big nasty riff that just needed to be played slow…
Lyrical theme:
Mark – This was written while my partner and I were expecting our first child, and it’s me telling myself to grow the fuck up. Also that I’m fucked. Plus I nicked a lyric from Murder By Death.
5 – New Liver, Same Eagle
Music: (Andy) This one came out of wanting to do something a bit different; the couple of songs we wrote prior to this were complex, aggressive beasts, this one was almost a reaction to that. It came together quickly, I think one or two practices, and the intent was really to have a couple of big old lumbering riffs do most of the work, but it really all started with a jam of the first section, with Beard and Ryan just making some beautiful noises with their guitars.
Lyrical theme: (Andy) The song is really about a period of transition in my life, about the recognition that I am the common denominator through my own life choices, but mostly about my galloping imposter syndrome, which felt overwhelming at the time. It’s kinda the equivalent of me trying to psych myself up for change. At the time I thought it was quite a negative song, I read it quite differently now through the glorious lens of hindsight!
6 – Thirteen Crows and One Pigeon
Music: Andy – I think the main body of this song was the first thing completed for the record musically. We had the mathy bit and then the other two main riffs just followed organically. It’s a lot of fun to play live. The whole end part came out of Beard finding a new synthy sound on his pedal, Robbie and I just jammed a bit underneath and ended up with this repeating phrase with different beat patterns. We thought it would feel a bit like a live interlude, which it kinda does.
Lyrical theme: Mark – this one is about the death throes of a relationship, usually 3 or 4 years in when you just think “yeah this is done”. It feels very grand and important at the time and there’s a good deal of guilt about not feeling a certain way, but there comes a time when you just have to go home. I got to call myself a pigeon in this one too so that’s something. You wouldn’t catch Ronnie Radke (sic?) exhibiting such a keen sense of self awareness. That’s probably because he’s a cunt.
7 – A Guide To Accepting Ones Fate
Music: (Andy) This song took a long, long time to write. We wanted to write something for me to be able to do live vocals that was aggressive, similar in intent to God’s Teeth from our previous EP. I think we kept one riff from the first version? It went through so many changes – my overriding memory of this one was Robbie saying over and over again ‘it’s not heavy enough’. I think it turned out pretty heavy. The last section I love as well, if only because Ryan and I concocted this ugly progression that sounds weirdly sad. Big sad riffs.
Lyrical theme: (Andy) The root of this existential fear. I was having horrendous sleep paralysis – I was semi conscious, but I couldn’t move, and it would get to the point where I’d just start thinking about that being the thing that killed me, and weirdly getting to this place of acceptance, which was crazy as it was really only hours, or maybe even less. It might not have even been real. Either way, it was weirdly freeing. The song has one of my favourite lines – ‘Death is good for the garden’ – which I can’t take credit for, I think I heard it on Radio 4 or something. It also features my favourite vocal performance from Ryan with the visceral ‘This feels like fate’ line. He smashed that!
8 – The Rich Man And The Sea
Music: Beard – I’m really proud of this one. I think the Deftones influence is perhaps most evident in this song but, I really enjoy all the open space in it. Lots of ringing, open chords and that beautiful lead line Ryan plays in the verse, all underpinned by Andy’s thundering bass and Robbie’s tight drumming keeping the foundations together.
Lyrical theme: Beard – “Baby, I’m an anarchist”. Just the idea that a better future is possible for us all. And a little silly nod to the Ever Given for doing more to disrupt late stage capitalism than many of us could hope to. “She’ll bury the mountains”. A reminder that the sea will claim everything we hold dear if we don’t change our priorities and live in harmony with each other and the natural world.
9 – Nicaea To See You (To See You Nicaea)
Music: Most of this one came together pretty easily, aside from a few twiddly bits that took a while to get right. Well, that and the polyrhythm part in the middle, which took us ages to land, it was definitely a case of ‘close your eyes and ignore the drums’ for a while! I love the end part though; it’s noisy and messy and owes no small debt to nu metal, or at least to my ears it does.
Lyrical theme: Mark – ‘what a personal and introspective album this is’ you may be thinking! Better stamp on that notion with a 5 minute tirade against St Paul which I was very angry about apparently when writing this. To be fair I think St Paul has done more than anyone to influence the last 2000 years, and mostly in negative ways with his daft theology. I’m also pretty sure he was a grifter. If Christians were paying attention they should be very upset with Paul for subverting the core message of Christianity. Here’s a little Brucey Bonus; I had the title before the song so please don’t tell anyone it doesn’t actually relate very much to the subject matter.
10 – Emergency Equipment
Music: (Andy) This was one of the first songs we wrote for the album, and one of the last to get finished. We knew from the beginning that we wanted the aggressive riff to start and finish the song, everything else got kinda jammed. The slow build middle section was a great example of one of those jams in the room where we played something and just kept building it up for ages, then let the dam burst – I think there was a collective ‘woah’ when we first played it in a room.
Lyrical theme: (Andy) Normally each song is predominantly the product of one lyricist, with maybe the odd add here or there from someone else, this is the only song where there was more than one writer. Beard came up with the lovely sung chorus, Ryan contributed my favourite section of the song near the beginning – the ‘Breathe, Anchor’ part, which ended up becoming the theme of the rest of the song. It’s a story about convincing a friend to get help, to let them know that they will be supported, and their eventual opening up. It’s ironic in a way, as the song was written to be hopeful and positive, but I still ended up writing a section that’s almost unremittingly bleak. I can’t help myself, I suppose!
The WOLVES interview
Was there a moment during writing/recording where things really clicked — like this is what the album’s gonna be?
(Andy) It’s an interesting question, on reflection. For me it all felt like a group of songs that I liked, rather than an album per se, pretty much right up until the bulk of the recording was done, when I could start to see the shape of it, that crystallised more when we started sequencing it and thinking of it like an album.
In a way it’s a product of who we all are, we’re all pretty authentic in the room, we’ve known each other as friends and musicians for a long time, so I can hear the ingredients – I can hear a riff that Ryan wrote, I can feel the parts that Robbie pushed for, not just in his drum parts, but in the bits of broader songwriting where he pushed for things to be as they are. Marks impact lyrically, the musicality of his cadence is just distilled Mark to me. Hearing Beard’s journey over the last few years into growing his confidence in singing, but also the growth in his screaming vocal has been humbling and it’s on full display here. It’s more than just an album to me, it’s my friends distilled into music and pressed on a disc.
With so many voices in the band, how do you decide who sings what — is it planned or more instinctive?
(Andy) Like most things, it’s a bit of both really. Each song was given to someone to write the lyrics for, mostly ones that would play to their strengths. That meant Mark got most of the hard ones! We wanted to make sure that there were more than one voice on most songs, so we brought people in where it made sense to do so, just to change up the tone, if nothing else. We all have quite distinct voices, which helped there. Sequencing the record was interesting though, making sure we got the right balance of vocals between songs, the listener wouldn’t get too many songs from one particular tone in a row, try and keep it refreshing and, if we’re being honest, intentionally a little disorienting for the listener. My only regret is that we only have one Ryan heavy track on the record! We’ll fix that next time.
(Mark) due to my geographical location and prolific loins I was less involved with the musical side of this album than I would have liked, this meant that the more complex songs were put into a folder titled “let Mark sing on this one”
Any old riffs or lyrics that made their way in from previous projects?
(Andy) Not really, there’s only really one bit that we took from a previous project, and even then we changed it as it didn’t really fit what the song was doing. For the most part this is all new. Well, as new as anything is. Coalesce said it best when they named their Led Zeppelin covers album ‘There’s nothing new under the sun’.
(Mark) Reformed has echoes of a Bludger song charmingly titled “Shitler” but that’s about it. I still try to steal as many lyrics from The Mountain Goats as I think I can get away with, and though I haven’t managed to reference Ace Of Base this time I did manage to name check Counting Crows.
roducing it yourselves — did that open things up or make you second-guess everything?
(Andy) I’m sure Robbie will have something to say here in his dual role! Like everything, it presented challenges and opportunities. We’re phenomenally lucky to have someone like Robbie in the band, he has an immense passion for what we’re doing, and a clear vision for the sound, which is brilliant. He’s managed to coax a massive sound out of us and recording like this gave us the opportunity to play with ideas, to experiment and to generally find new ways of looking at the problem, which I doubt we would have had otherwise, if only because studio and producer time is expensive and we’d have had to have been more disciplined. The flip side to that lack of time pressure meant that we took a long time recording the album. But to be honest, I think the positives vastly outstrip the negatives.
I don’t think we second guessed much during the recording process, we put in the hours during writing and demoing, so we were pretty confident with the overall structure of the songs, at least musically. For me, the second-guessing, overthinking and crippling self doubt only came about after we submitted it to Ripcord and it became a distinct reality that people would actually hear it!
How do these new songs feel live — tighter chaos or same old carnage?
(Andy) It’s interesting, if only because of how similar and yet different they feel. The newer songs are more complex for the most part than the last EP, both vocally and musically, which means we’re maybe more constrained onstage than we were, but it’s been brilliant seeing the songs land with people. At the same time I’m more confident with these songs onstage, if only because I know they are better songs; I know the build is going to lead somewhere, and I know the hard bits will hit hard. It’s telling for me that there’s not a song on the album that we wouldn’t play live – there’s no ‘album only’ tracks here. Plus I will definitely say that playing the last two minutes of ‘All or Something’ to people at monstrous volume is the most fun I’ve had with my trousers on for ages.
(Mark) we wrote the first batch of songs for the old ep with the goal of being able to chuck ourselves about on stage and not worry too much about the playing, but as we took ourselves a bit more seriously when writing these songs they take a little more practice and concentration at points and the payoffs now mean more. If the old set was a hurricane the set now is more like a series of tsunamis. Plus you get more time to look at Beard now in the quieter or fancier bits.
(Andy)… and Beard is an objectively beautiful man, so that’s a treat for everyone, frankly.
