A new black metal project by multi-instrumentalist Tom O’Dell of UK power metallers Battle Born, this kind of piqued my interest by the traditional means of a kind of title reminiscent of many old black metal albums somehow. Neat cover, intriguing logo and more of a Midnight Sorcery look than say Black Cilice.

OK, so.. ‘A Lunar Descent’ slides into darkness of some cool Druadan Forest style sombre synths before the icy riff of ‘Fallen Before Their Blazing Altar’ envelops it. It’s a dark, symphonic sound that simply reaches out and closes tight around you. It’s got the sound of all those good roots; very early Cradle Of Filth, Emperor, even a little Gehenna maybe but just shades in the overall dark sound. It’s a good opening, a style laid out without pretention. ‘Queen Of The Blighted Throne’ is more of the same; mid paced but galloping drums, some excellent guitar work on the riffs and a nice touch of the heavy metal to them. ‘Infernal Heresy’ goes for the throat a little more without tossing aside the rich melodic tones. If you didn’t know would you guess the power metal of one of O’Dell’s other projects? I would think so; the little touches of almost progressive runs on the guitar, the richness of the emotional melodies all hint but this is all wrapped up ins very fine, ice cold black metal cloak and soul that it never strays too far.

There is most definitely a strong vein of the romantic and the fantastic to this despite the song titles. ‘Ablaze In Abyssal Frosts’ definitely has more of a progressive approach too and, yes, my mind meanders a bit during the instrumental section but the vocal parts and the keyboards make up for it.

‘Echoes Of A Forgotten Dream’ speeds along and sails merrily along a fantastic melodic theme that makes me think of journeys and travels into the strangest of places. ‘Eternal Pyres’ launches into the night sky, and the rasped word ‘majesty’ really does resonate with the sound Wraithfyre seem to be weaving. ‘Dark Souls Devoured’ closes with fair aplomb if less of a hook than I’d hope for.

So we have the very good: Genuinely fine playing and arrangements, but I’d expect nothing less. The use of keyboards is excellent and the vocals good and they clearly know why they started this project and what they wanted it to sound. The bad? Well I wouldn’t say bad, more some things for me need a little more attention. I found, overall, things had a tendency to slide into an easy and similar sound. For an album with so much very nice melody it is strangely lacking in either hooks or those rushes of chilling emotion. It’s not that’s it’s sterile. Far from it. This is clearly a passion project but with songs that whilst certainly define the sound of the band somehow often sound too similar it can be a little bit of a long journey.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot to like here and it is definitely worth checking out but at the moment I’m more keen on seeing how it progresses. Pretty good though.

(6.5/10 Gizmo)

https://www.facebook.com/wraithfyreblackmetal

https://wraithfyre.bandcamp.com/album/of-fell-peaks-and-haunted-chasms-2