No artist credited 🙁

Style: Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal (Clean Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Riverside, Soen, Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson
Country: Sweden
Release date: 6 February 2026

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The wolverine (both the animal and Marvel Comics character) is infamous for possessing a tenacity and power far exceeding the expectations of a small stature. Both are also largely solitary in nature, though only one of them perhaps feels a tad tortured over this fact. If you’re wondering what any of this has to do with Swedish prog rockers Wolverine, well, I needed an introduction for this review, and this is the best I had. Hitting the scene with a steady string of releases in the 2000s, Wolverine landed on the endangered list after 2016’s Machina Viva, surfacing briefly with an EP in 2021 only to vanish again. Anomalies marks their first full-length in a decade, and my first encounter with this elusive prog predator. Has this Swedish beast returned with the ferocity to take me down, or has time dulled their claws?

Wolverines are known to follow the tracks of other animals to scavenge from the remains of meals, taking stops to drink from a nearby Riverside. Okay, okay, that’s mostly for the pun—Wolverine predates the Polish outfit by around six years—but Anomalies draws much of its sonic identity from similarly melancholic and mid-paced waters as 2017’s Wasteland. Vocalist Stefan Zell carries a particularly nice note, his cleans smooth and resonant, inspiring fleeting comparisons to Leprous’ Einar Solberg, especially on tracks like “Nightfall”, “My Solitary Foe”, or centerpiece cut “This World and All Its Dazzling Lights”. Most importantly, he knows how to establish and run with a chorus: more than once during my initial listens I found myself immediately singing along. The ways he, guitarist Jonas Jonsson, and drummer Marcus Losbjer align across Anomalies to create infectious melodies is deceptively effective. Anomalies is not an album overflowing with dazzling solos, complicated riffcraft, or any of the usual hallmarks one might expect from a progressive record, but it’s hardly devoid of forward motion. ”Circuits” and “Automation”, both more stripped back than their brethren, maintain interest through subtle crescendos (and some sultry trumpet on the former). Pacing, too, is at a premium: song lengths rarely travel north of six minutes, and even longer cuts like “Losing Game” and “Scarlet Tide” benefit from smart compositions that keep things moving. There’s a pleasing consistency running through Anomalies that announces the craft of veteran performers.

However, consistency for the predator can lead to predictability, allowing attentive prey to slip away. Wolverine caught a scent and dutifully give chase across the album’s fifty-two minutes, leading to a record bereft of surprise or standout moment. As a result, Anomalies becomes frighteningly easy to disengage with. More than a few times I found myself losing track of where I was, only to be jostled back into awareness by a particularly punchy crescendo (“This World and All Its Dazzling Lights”, “A Perfect Alignment”) before drifting away again. Everything slides together like rain down the window pane; hypnotic, even a tad magical, but ask me to recall particular shapes or configurations and I’d be hard-pressed.

That said, if you’ve found yourself starved for a no-frills, atmosphere-forward prog rock album to compliment a dreary day, Anomalies may well be what you seek. Melancholic without collapsing into depressive, well-performed but never extravagant, Wolverine’s return have netted them a confident release that supplants a lack of “wow” factor with an iron-clad commitment to a sonic identity. Whether long-time fans will resonate with Anomalies, I can’t say, but fans of modern sad-dad prog like Riverside and Soen should find plenty to like here.

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Recommended tracks: My Solitary Foe, This World and All Its Dazzling Lights, A Perfect Alignment
You may also like: The Mystery, Kingcrow, Pure Reason Revolution, Throes of Dawn, Full Nothing
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Mascot Label Group Records

Wolverine is:
– Marcus Losbjer (drums)
– Per Henriksson (keyboards)
– Stefan Zell (vocals)
– Thomas Jansson (bass)
– Jonas Jonsson (guitars)