Undo the Chains

Getting up to speed with Wraith is no mean feat, and their third album in 4 years proves why. Undo the Chains takes just 32 minutes to spit out 12 songs, which should inform that both punk and speed metal tendencies remain at hand. These Americans can play slower, just they don’t do it very often or for very long. The extra lunge of blackened attitude and crossover thrash aggression takes this through the roof at times, such as when ‘Victims of the Sword’ and ‘Mistress of the Void’ hit clinical choruses in a furious flurry of riffing. I was quite a fan of how prior full-length Absolute Power concentrated on slamming riffs as well as the blackened jangle of fury at times, and that’s how ‘Gatemaster’ operates here, not rushing too much but crunching along on high intensity at medium pace.

Those changes in pace notwithstanding, I don’t think Wraith ultimately come up with enough tricks or hooks to bring this past the standard of Hellripper’s or Bewitcher’s best work. Sure, everything is too brief and furious to actually feel boring, yet much of it is very much there without adding anything beyond the regulation vocal slogans and a few spicier leads. I mean, go listen to Hellripper’s ‘Black Arts & Alchemy’ to know what black/speed can achieve with a little flair and creative thinking. Undo the Chains suffers from cuts like ‘Cloaked in Black’ and ‘Gift of Death’ that arrive spoiling for a fight and ultimately win, just that they don’t pull off many crowd-pleasing moves. This sort of music should make me want to get blind drunk and punch holes in the wall, but Wraith put me more in the mood to chug a fizzy drink and clean the apartment really fast. In that regard, the heavy metal vibes of ‘Born to Die’ prove more than just ironic entertainment, though only by a slight margin.


Originally written (in edited form) for Metalegion #10 - www.metalegion.com