GOOD old rock music served differently.
Six years since last churning out an album (2001’s Black Mantra), Basti Artadi and the boys find themselves waking up to a digital age. Hence, their sixth installment rocking its way into mobile phones.
All ten songs in Villains (not at all related to the hit TV show Heroes, Basti says) will be available for download via Smart’s Music Store.
The album is released independently via Semenelin Music put up by the band itself, obviously referencing their 1996 major-label debut album.
Three tracks off Villains have been released almost simultaneously: “Ibrahim,” “John of the Cross,” and “Novus Is Burning,” the last one written for online game RF Online.
Months before the official release, Basti has been dropping hints about the new album on Friendster and other social networking sites. In today’ press launch, he was the most outspoken — well relative to guitarist Manuel Legarda and bassist Mon Legaspi.
All three admitted to jetlag, arriving in time for the album launch. By Basti’s own account, the road to a new Wolfgang album started last year when the band reunited for the Alive 2007 concert.
Their set then included a new song “Death Squad,” now included in Villains. Since then, the boys have learned to embrace digital, swapping tracks off the Internet before recording a proper album.
So by their own account, the album was recorded in three cities: Basti was holed up in San Francisco with his own band, Mon doing gigs in Hong Kong and Manuel staying behind, occasionally seen jamming with Razorback.
The obvious question is: is Wolfgang ever the same without drummer Wolf Gemora? Wolf was last seen with California-based Lokomotiv but wasn’t in the launch. So it looks like Francis Aquino is doing drumming duties from hereon.

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