Max Vanderwolf, originally from New York City, now living in Los Angeles since 2020, has produced numerous albums and songs throughout his career, although many of them have yet to be released. He gained recognition as the lead vocalist and driving creative force behind the renowned London band, Last Man Standing. Here’s his latest album, “The Great Bewilderment”!
The album starts off with the song, “A’comin Home”, laying down the foudnation for the album quite nicely with its soft, ballad-like execution with the guitars and the vocal style that brings in elements of country rock and pop to create a warm, welcoming atmosphere. As we navigate the album further, standouts like “Sweep Away The Shards” come up, a slow, candlelit story told beautifully through the instrumental ensemble, bringing interesting drum fills, and innovative melodic songwriting to create an amazing listen, a story told elegantly.
The album draws to a close with “Gratitude Suite”, which delights with its Avenged Sevenfold-esque electric guitars with their creamy, overdriven yet aggressive charm— and the singing style fits in perfectly with the theme of the song, and overall, forms the perfect ending to “The Great Bewilderment”. Some other tracks that stood out to me on this album include “The Book of Dread”, and “Here & Now”.
The production on the album retains a beautiful country flavour on a rock base, with the ensemble in support, and the mixing is delightful and spacey. Wrap that up with a balanced master that controls the dynamics like butter, and you have a winner of an album in “The Great Bewilderment”. Check out the album here!