Wrath

This is the only official Wrath release that I haven’t graced with a few words yet… I’ve been avoiding it, honestly, as I hate spitting the band’s way having in mind how much I love their early period, especially this grandiose piece of metal art “Nothing to Fear”… but at the same time I can’t pretend that this EP here doesn’t exist; cause it does, and provided that it was the first product the band unleashed after a huge hiatus, it stands to criticism, and some more.

The guys never surrendered to the groovy/post-thrashy trends, and wisely disappeared once the latter became a prominent presence on the scene. Some may argue that “Insane Society”, the third instalment, hinted at a possible transformation but since such a transformation never actually occurred, the band exited the scene safely, without being infected with the numetal virus.

Hats off to that, but enters the year 2008, and we see the band founders, the bass player Gary Modica and the guitarist Scott Nyquist up-and-ready for another spell with the music industry. And not only but they’ve also managed to convince Kurt Grayson, the vocalist from the mentioned “Insane Society”, to join them for this new stint… it would have been great if they had talked first with Gary Golwitzer, the inimitable banshee from the first two opuses… but they hadn’t, and it was perhaps for the better as this 4-tracker is a most lazily, nonchalantly executed tribute to the groovy/aggro 90’s on which Golwitzer wouldn’t have fitted, not even by a single note. Grayson does the trick, though, but doesn’t sound inspired at all as he has to accompany tired one-dimensional chuggers like “Fingers Up” that at least exudes some energy of the abrasive thrashcore variety. No such lifebelts on “What You Live For” which is a boring groovy dragger with an awkward livelier epitaph, a belated insertion which is completely missing from “Another Day”, a terrible unmelodic industrialized noiser which identical twin is “Keep Em in Line”, a bouncy trite non-sense that again dodgily comes alive on the sprightly lead section.

Grayson shouts unpleasantly for most of the time, making few efforts at actual singing, his colleagues sounding stiff, rusty and barely recognizable… one may find it hard to believe that those were the musicians behind the extraordinary “Nothing to Fear”… and what's even more absurd is that one of US’ finest retro thrashers have chosen the banal 90’s numetal trends to present as a reunion stint… why!? No wonder it produced nothing the guys acquiring another semi-dormant state for a number of years… and it also didn’t raise the hopes very high for any future endeavours from this camp as obviously the pleasant surprises wouldn’t be many at all. Well, the bottom was reached here, which also meant that deplorable flops of the kind couldn’t be come across, and “Stark Raving Mad” was a pretty decent proposition with a firm old school sound albeit without Grayson. The biggest shock, however, was thrown four years later when “Rage”, which finally saw Goulitzer back in the team, tried to combine bits and pieces of their staple retro thrash tactics with the insipid modern charade from the EP here, the final result equally as embarrassing…

I don’t know… when the guys betted on fear and anger at first, they delivered; when they moved towards wrath, madness and rage things started getting messy… I’m not sure what words of wisdom to provide for them… except that surely there’s nothing to fear out there save for your own creative urges.