Building cinematic conundrum from intrusive thoughts spurned on by an increasingly surreal, degenerating reality abounding Indiana-based black-thrashing speed metalpunk quartet WRAITH ride the uncanny valley into the worst possible scenario as their collective psyche goes nuclear on this fourth full-length album. Intending to convey a better-rounded, continually evolving oeuvre representative of their interests and inspirations ‘Fueled by Fear‘ shapes paranoid nightmares into a classic-yet-new vision of thrashing, extreme metalpunk with a raw edge sans any loose ends or half-thought measures. Rather than fuse into cyclic recombination this process appears to extrapolate, pull the essence of their gig outward into one of their longest and most varietal releases which takes a step away from the swinging blackened speed metal side of things.

Wraith formed circa 2016 as a solo group by way of guitarist/vocalist Matt Sokol who’d previously been in black/speed metal group Hedlok in the early 2010’s, the suggested mission statement intended to work against the strictures of modern metal while naturally aiming for their own taste in blackened thrash, speed metal, and hardcore punk as major points of inspiration. You can definitely feel this from their self-titled debut EP as a trio (‘Wraith‘, 2017) where the bright, lively sound of neothrash (a la Toxic Holocaust) and the swinging ride of Midnight kinda naturally met up on the latter side of things, a fairly typical hit of blackened speed metal revisionism. That’d be the major observation from the press for their debut LP (‘Heed the Warning‘, 2017) as well but you could feel the crossover and hardcore in their approach to riffcraft which even then wasn’t limited to rocking speed metal movement.

There is definitely a mean and raw side to this kind of sound (which I’m usually all about) but I’d say Wraith have always been on the more “fun” end of the spectrum as a first impression and that’d kept me at a distance ’til their third full-length (‘Undo the Chains‘, 2021). I figure if a band is going to do this type of thing they’d better sound about that pro and go for the riffs on every song, they did, and I was impressed enough to write a brief review around the time of release suggesting: “The point of differentiation comes with their ability to sound like later Immortal (“Time Wins”) one moment and Power Trip (“Gatemaster”) the next; Even if they’re not necessarily up to speed with any of these influences in terms of songwriting there is something to be said for a solid, well-performed black/speed metal album with a modern yet earnest thrasher’s taste level applied.” I mean it’d been a big enough statement that when I’d gotten a whiff of ‘Fueled by Fear‘ and saw the choice Bouzikov painting on the front I knew I wanted to give this record a fair shot.

Opener/title track “Fueled by Fear” kicks off this first thread of the album in a style which I’d compare to the Sodom albums few people celebrate in the early 90’s via ‘Better off Dead‘ and the kinda death/thrashing ‘Tapping the Vein‘ where harsher vocals and more severe groove driven pieces lead them down a path few remember where the raw and abrasive nature of the guitar work met well with (eh, much faster by comparison) hardcore punk blazed drumming. The first four or so songs on ‘Fueled by Fear‘ have a similarly hunkered-down death-thrash meanness but it was “Shame in Suffering” that got me nodding along to its stomping walk of a groove, probably some of the most infectious hardcore-fused rhythms on the album for our post-‘Nightmare Logic’ reality today. That thread kinda keeps on chugging through with surprisingly catchy pit-clobberer “Code Red” hitting right after. The intro to the album and those first four songs proper are the main reason I’d recommend this album, these are crowd pleasers and stuff fans of thrash old and new should appreciate on a basal level… but hey, this is only just one side of the band explored. Some of this gear is louder than before, some of it is new, most of it is familiar enough in the realm of Wraith.

The thing about ‘Fueled by Fear‘, at least in my case, was that it’d taken a minimum of about five listens to begin to not only take stock of each mode and style adorning Wraith‘s sound on this album but to begin to make sense of it all sans any true fusion event that pulled it all together. As they crank out 14 songs in just about ~45 minutes you’ll definitely get a lot of the best parts of their previous record (which’d whipped out twelve songs in a half hour) but extrapolated and expanded rather than blended together; When I first hit the motörpunk/Midnight-esque “Ice Cold Bitch” it was a too-weird change-up beyond the two hardcore punkish pieces before it, even if those two modes are well within the band’s repertoire. Yet it wasn’t long before “Warlord” reinforced that point of change as they go on to hit another 2-3 songs in that related heavy/speed metal influenced style. Some of those turns taken are abrupt to start, others are fused with a small touch of black metal guitar work, but it all becomes another part of the Wraith gig once the brain has absorbed their broad-set range here on ‘Fueled by Fear‘.

Does an all-out fusion dance ever take place? “Shattered Sorrow” basically gets there but most of this album concerns itself with pulling right back into a more straightforward crossover/thrash tip as we push into the second half beyond “Hell’s Canyon” or so as more ~4 minute songs begin to pull back into pit-level riffcraft. Though there are some undeniably catchy songs that spark up in the last third of the full listen ‘Fueled by Fear‘ has shown its greater deal just past halfway (“Merchant of Death”, more-or-less) and the rest is more about enjoying the ride, feeling the buzz and for my own taste this gets a bit repetitive despite none of the songs lacking in interest. Anyone who’d plumbed the depths of ‘old school’ thrash and crossover has heard far less complex and way more repetitive albums and been entertained, though a couple of these could’ve been clipped off to ease on the total brain rot achieved. Otherwise for my own taste “Truth Decay” and “Vulture” felt like essential songs for the sake of the Wraith experience touching upon old and new traits later in the album.

It ain’t that deep? — The worst-case scenario thinking that weaves its way through ‘Fueled by Fear‘ isn’t as direct as suggested, though a few songs envision the end of humanity and others refer to the downfall of society, it ends up feeling more like fantasy lore rather than the fearsome conspiracy-minded paranoia common to neothrash and certain Regan-era thrash metal records. This is fitting enough for the tone of the album which is fairly serious apart from a few points where they’re clearly having fun, we definitely get less of those blackened speed metal songs one’d expect and this means fewer of those “fun” swinging pieces in general. The dire and aggressive tone works for me but might feel different if you’d discovered/preferred the band per their first two records.

Because my bias leans away from typical forms of black/speed metal lately I’d enjoyed this record more than most of Wraith‘s discography, though I would concede that ‘Undo the Chains‘ was easier to pick up and roll with from the outset. This one took a few more spins to catch onto but ultimately stuck with me more than expected, the level of repetition and similar sounding pieces both works for and against it providing an immersive and unceasing spin. With this in mind I’d suggest ‘Fueled by Fear‘ is a fine place to start, a record that covers most of the important bases as an introduction to this band but also finds its own groove along the path taken. A moderately high recommendation.

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