⋘"With a crushing heaviness that feels more like a personal act of God going off in your face when you press play than merely listening to a record, it's an understatement to say that Wraiths bring the mosh. Hailing from the North East of the UK, Wraiths have committed five tracks of downbeat, downtempo and downtuned pit-bait to tape, a 20 minute pummeling of truly mammoth proportion. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Richard Doney at Landscape Studios, Cleveland, this EP is a primal force of nature, mixing up the fast with the slow and the slower still, each palm mute hitting like a hammer, every self-loathing scream clawing at your soul. And when the mosh drops 20 seconds in to opening track 'Pyramid Head', you'll not resist the urge to regress, tear off your shirt and pound the ground."

Such is the description from WITCH HUNTER RECORDS about Wraith's debut self-titled EP, originally released by the band independently on October 31, 2012; later picked up by the aforementioned label and re-released May 29, 2013. Crushing from start to finish, this five track short player is insanely impressive and even more impressively BRUTAL! We could have just as easily chosen any of the other four songs to add to this mixtape, but something about "BLACK VULTURES" spoke to me most personally. Make sure to check out the whole release on either Witch Hunter Records' bandcamp or Wraith's own bandcamp (you'll notice the album actually has two different covers; if I were to choose, I'd go with the original one as the band had it rather than the Slayer-esque one the label gave it, but a cover is just that - a cover; it's the music that's most essential and in this case the music speaks VERY loudly!).

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Richard Doney at Landscape Studios, Cleveland. Artwork & layout by Ben Aucott. Limited to 50 copies on cassette, and pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp.⋙

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ BAND BIOGRAPHY & INFORMATION ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

"Wraiths are one of the latest wave of heavy, thick, sludge-ridden bands to bring out a record during the first half of 2013. With Pyramid Head, they mix that sludge with mosh-friendly passages, rock n roll inspired riffs and hardcore vocals. They even through in some introspective guitar which belies their aggressive nature. These guys must have an eye for evil with a song titled Church Burner. What you get is an emotion filled slab of angry hardcore, with a low-end that threatens to blow the floor out from underneath you. For all the clichés written in that last sentence, this song is genuinely heavy and it proves that you don't need to travel at warp speed to be so.

Some of the riffs Wraiths play provide plenty of down tuned melody and actually show a maturity of a band far beyond their first demo! That's a compliment that these guys really deserve. Hell Ride shows Wraiths settling into their EP and flexing their atmospheric muscles. There's another cleanly plucked passage and a build up of volume that helps make the song more dramatic, while the use of multiple vocalists heaps personality on the recording. The production helps too, as it's clear but holds enough depth to help Wraiths momentum.

One thing I've noticed as the opening bars of Black Vultures rings out, is that the songs are getting progressively longer. The ideas and song writing flows more and that claustrophobic feeling that you witnessed during the opening track seems to get more prevalent. I'm finding hard to think of a similar band, which is odd, as I've been listening to a lot of blackened hardcore of late. Maybe that's testament to Wraiths in that they're not easily classifiable, to these ears anyway.

Fifth and final song Monolith is pretty much as you'd expect from a song that smashes the seven-minute mark. It lurches forward at a mid-pace, bringing to mind bands like Seven Sisters of Sleep or Nails during their slower moments. Interesting anchor point there, as Wraiths manage to keep away from the pitfall of using too many influences and not enough originality. Even if you think you've heard it all before, this will still get to you. It'll burrow its way under your skin and hit you when you least expect it. It's eerily catchy for such a slow record and again proves that speed ain't everything.

This is well worth the small investment and is once again proof that the tape format is still relevant. Nice one!"

Source: thisnoiseisours.blogspot.com/2013/07/wraiths-ep-2012.html



WRAITHS CONSISTS OF...

Rae Robinson - Vocals
Dan William - Guitars
Daniel Charlton - Guitars/Keys
Dale Husband - Bass Guitar
Richard Baker - Drums


BAND CONTACT INFO / PRESS / GENERAL INQUIRIES:
wraithsbooking@hotmail.com


BOOKING AGENT: kieran@kjmbookings.com


ALTERNTE BAND CONTACT: Danielbarcuda@hotmail.com


WITCH HUNTER RECORDS: witchhunterrecords@gmail.com