in late may 2015, former members carey howe, geoff gayer and wade black announced that they were working on a new leatherwolf studio album for a late fall release. drummer dean roberts and vocalist/guitarist michael olivieri, original members of the band's current line-up, countered by issuing a statement laying claim to sole legal ownership of the name leatherwolf. howe and gayer eventually settled on the name haunt of jackals and released their debut album, "the chosen", in january 2017 which also included patrick guyton handling the bass tracks.