Powerwolf (often stylized in all caps) is a German power metal band founded in 2003 in Saarbrücken by members of Red Aim.

The band consists of vocalist Karsten Brill as "Attila Dorn", lead guitarist Benjamin Buss as "Matthew Greywolf", bassist/rhythm guitarist David Vogt as "Charles Greywolf", keyboardist Christian Jost as "Falk Maria Schlegel" and drummer Roel van Helden.

The group uses religious themes and images, contrary to traditional power metal music, as well as corpse paint, gothic-tinged compositions and songs about werewolf and vampire legends.

Shortly after its release, their first drummer Stefan Gemballa (stage name Stéfane Funèbre) left the band.

[2] Officially, the brothers Charles and Matthew Greywolf had been playing together for years when they decided to create a band, and so Powerwolf was started.

[3] Dorn, a student of classical opera at the academy in Bucharest,[3] moved to the band's hometown Saarbrücken, and became the frontman of Powerwolf.

[14] In November 2010, Powerwolf organist Falk Maria Schlegel stated about the group's new material:[15] We spent the last three months in the rehearsal room working out stuff for the new album.

[16] The band released the single "Sanctified with Dynamite" on 24 May 2011 and the second one on 5 July 2011 titled "We Drink Your Blood", to which Powerwolf recorded their first ever music video.

Their fourth album, titled Blood of the Saints, was released on 29 July 2011 in Europe and 2 August in the United States.

In September 2011, Powerwolf went on a quadruple headline tour with Sabaton, Grave Digger and Skull Fist.

[28] Boxset and earbook editions of the album featured a bonus CD Metallum Nostrum, which contains 10 songs of different artists that Powerwolf's band members selected to cover, such as Judas Priest, Running Wild, Savatage, Chroming Rose, Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Amon Amarth, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath.

It contained live footage of three shows: Masters of Rock 2015, Summer Breeze 2015, Wolfsnächte Tour 2015, music videos to "Amen & Attack", "Army of the Night", "We Drink Your Blood" and "Sanctified with Dynamite", a festival documentation "A Day At Summer Breeze" and a tour documentation movie "Kreuzweg – Of Wolves And Men".

[citation needed] On 10 October 2017, Powerwolf announced on Facebook that they had completed writing for their seventh full-length album, promising its release to occur sometime in 2018.

The album was rated positively by the critics, highlighting mainly the new elements that Powerwolf put in the music.

[32] A limited edition mediabook version of The Sacrament of Sin featured a second disc named Communio Lupatum, which featured Powerwolf songs covered by other artists selected by the band members, such as Epica, Saltatio Mortis, Caliban, Battle Beast, Heaven Shall Burn, Kadavar, Kissin' Dynamite, Mille Petrozza, Marc Görtz, Amaranthe and Eluveitie.

[36] On 1 November 2019, the band released their single of their re-written and re-recorded version of "Kiss of the Cobra King".

[48] On 9 June 2021, a re-recorded version of "Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend" featuring Alissa White-Gluz on vocals (from Missa Cantorem, the bonus cover album included with various special formats of Call of the Wild) was released.

[51] On 4 October 2022, the band announced that they are set to perform their first North American shows in New York City and Montreal in February 2023.

[53] On 4 April 2024, Powerwolf announced that their tenth studio album, Wake Up the Wicked, is set for release on 26 July 2024.

[63] The band states that their main influences are Black Sabbath, Mercyful Fate, Forbidden and Iron Maiden.

[64] The dominant language of the lyrics is English, but they also use Latin ("Werewolves of Armenia", "Lupus Dei", "Kreuzfeuer", "Stossgebet", "Sanctus Dominus"), and rarely German ("Moscow After Dark", "We Take the Church by Storm", "Werewolves of Armenia", "Kreuzfeuer", "Amen & Attack", "Stossgebet", "Glaubenskraft").

"[66] In one of the interviews, Matthew is quoted saying:[66] Some people are confused because we never make a point of saying the silly words of which side we are on.

[67][68] The vocalist Attila Dorn often speaks directly to the audience and engages them in various activities, such as singing or shouting, before announcing the next song.