Manchester’s Wolfbastard delivers a double shot of raucous crust punk and black metal on the fiery Satanic Scum Punks.
Release date: March 13, 2026 | Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings | Bandcamp | Instagram
Even though my years of genuine elitism are past me, I’ll admit it’s easy to get caught up chasing down heavy music with artistic ambition. Bands that push the envelope, blend disparate styles, or cut to the heart of deep emotions. The sort of material that I can pick at, dissect, and find deep meaning in. But you know what? Sometimes, I just want to throw all that shit aside, hang up any artistic pretensions, and just listen to an auditory middle finger to all things civil and high-minded. Something a lot like Wolfbastard.
I’ve never had the pleasure of hearing Manchester’s Wolfbastard before, but when I heard a couple samples of their fourth album Satanic Scum Punks, it was obvious that the album was going to be a fun one. Sonically, the band’s modus operandi is pretty straightforward; crust punk rooted in UK traditions, balanced off against the savage inclinations of black metal’s dirtier side. Barked vocals, clear but spare production, and an overflow of booze, blasphemy, and attitude. It goes without saying that Satanic Scum Punks isn’t necessarily providing any novelty or progression, but it doesn’t need to because it’s just an absolute blast.
Song to song, Satanic Scum Punks does operate on a pretty homogenous level. You’re either getting charging punk chords and snappy beats, or frosty blackened tremolo riffs over blast beats or rolling double bass. The balance does shift across the album, where tracks like “F.O.A.D.” or “Drink For Hell” punching hard with crusty fury while “Blood on Steel” (a personal favorite) lean hard on scathing black metal aggression. Ultimately though, each of these eleven tracks is a double dose of catchy, raucous punk and metal that would make genre forefathers like Venom, Discharge, and Darkthrone proud.
The real place where Wolfbastard knocks it out of the park, though, is just in sheer attitude. Without a doubt, Satanic Scum Punks lives up to that cover art’s promise of a broken bottle wielded by a fist wearing a Mötorhead ring. Satanic Scum Punks is just out to say ‘fuck you’ to everyone and everything, and it makes for an unbelievably fun listen. Practically every song has a killer hook or a chorus that demands to be sung along with, sensitive ears be damned.
Whether it’s shouting along with the title track, the infectious ‘drink for hell, fuck for Satan’ refrain of “Drink for Hell”, the fun wordplay of “Manic Street Creatures”, or the bluntness of “You Fucking Rat”, almost any moment of this album is liable to cause a smirk and approving nod at the minimum. Maybe it’s the world climate or societal decline, but Satanic Scum Punks feels so righteously pissed off that it’s cathartic. How often in a day do any of us just want to tell someone to ‘go and play in traffic’ the way Wolfbastard does here? I personally listen to metal and punk for a whole lot of reasons, but Satanic Scum Punks brings me back to the original reason I approached both genres; because they’re fun, and listening to them feels good.
As much as metal and punk are diverse genres, rife with experimentation and bands looking to expand horizons with their listeners, sometimes we just need an album like Satanic Scum Punks. Their take on blackened punk cuts the crap and provides the absolute essential attitude and energy of the genre in spades. It’s a refreshingly stripped take on the genre, and I applaud Wolfbastard for delivering such a heaping helping of filthy earworms with no more than pissed off energy and a handful of angry chords. Drink up, and get ready to throw fists.
