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WRAITH
Fueled By Fear

Prosthetic (2024)
Rating: 8/10

With their fourth full-length studio album, Indiana metalheads Wraith churn out another dose blackened speed n’ punky thrash. You certainly get your money’s worth with Fueled By Fear as the band storms forth with 14 cuts all of which boast joyously teenage lyrics – check out the ghoulish ‘Horses And Hounds’ – and a spiteful freshness in their attack.

The band most certainly has one foot in 1987 as they provide a bit of Bay Area crunch, lashings of Slayer, dollops of lethal punk and hints of Motörhead. The main ingredient here which keeps the album really interesting is the riffs; catchy, crisp and lethal from the off with the instrumental ‘Asylum’ and the title track.

Matt Sokol really delivers from the depth of his throat, the result being a rasping dehydrated gasp that brings a rawness to the more clinical music. Timely riffs lurch into speedier segments, but I can’t help but latch onto the slower traipsing particularly on ‘Shame In Suffering’ and ‘Warlord’ which hammer like a more primeval Motörhead.

At their fastest, Wraith forces you to choke on the rusted punk riffs of ‘Ice Cold Bitch’ and the turbulent rant of ‘Vulture’. Mike Szymendera’s percussive kicks add extra layers of punk punch as bassist Chris Petkus maniacally fingers his strings. The robust blasts of fury are unrelenting; ‘Code Red’ is a metallic stomper, ‘Merchant Of Death’ nods to classic Slayer, ‘Hell’s Canyon’ provides a killer gallop and ‘Shattered Sorrow’ is happy to rattle at either end of the spectrum with slower grooves lapsing into pace.

Hints of vintage Metallica and Possessed merge with Toxic Holocaust as Wraith keep things generally simple yet infectious as with each hit lyrically I’m transported back to my youth, a time when my childish lyrics were not too dissimilar to what’s offered here. Wraith is a band that taps into something precious as nostalgic vapours rise and swirl like comforting autumnal embers.

The saying “less is more” is very much applicable here for what is essentially Wraith really finding their groove and cruising with sublime savagery and slickness.

Neil Arnold

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