ALBUM REVIEW: Wolves, Wraiths And Witches – Mentor
The uncompromised youthful energy and careless spirit of METALLICA’s Kill ‘Em All is something thrash metal has seemed to drift from as the genre matured from infancy. The modern era seems more concerned by socio-political vitriol – and often to great effect a la WARBRINGER – but surely belting about the odd ‘axe-embedded skull’ beside the pungent stench of cheap beer wouldn’t go amiss right? Grizzly, blackened, drenched in blood, decay and various other unpleasant words, MENTOR answers such a call with ruthless confidence and absolutely no-nonsense on their latest record; Wolves, Wraiths And Witches. It might not strictly be a thrash record but what MENTOR has accomplished is an indulgent waft of nostalgia to that oh so carefree era of demons and hellfire thrash metal; not in a cheap or pandering way, but in their own.
Completing the hat trick of albums labelled after ‘things you don’t really want in your bowl of cornflakes’, Wolves, Wraiths And Witches is certainly more of the same from this motley-est of crews – unapologetic concise battery – but MENTOR simply aren’t a band that demand a new paint job each album; they look pretty good drenched in red as it happens. The aforementioned METALLICA nod really is just a nod (as opposed to a pandering headbutt) with vocalist King Of Nothing’s stage name being as tongue-in-cheek as it gets. In fact, while MENTOR have confidently established themselves between hardcore and blackened thrash, their third LP is a well-balanced fusion of classic Bay Area thrash and the band’s own hardcore and blackened touches. Eighties era Mark Osegueda-esque vocals battle against hardcore bellows and the riffs and rhythms that give Wolves… the meat on its bone come kicking and screaming from the hallowed archives of EXODUS and TESTAMENT.
Unlike the songs of yore, especially the likes of METALLICA and MEGADETH, Mentor like to keep their teachings short. Their sermons in ravaging ears are remorseless morsels, numbers that happily leap from riff to riff and explosive hook to explosive hook. There’s no need for a horde of solos and tone switches as MENTOR never plays with their food, especially on numbers like Fed After Midnight and Blood Is Love, where it’s never any clearer that Wolves…‘s purpose is to bewitch the mind with indelible and, most crucially, enjoyable bludgeonings; the chorus of the former, for instance, is inescapably catchy.
The obvious critique that will be thrown MENTOR’s way will be on account of originality, complexity, substance – and, quite frankly, it’s not entirely misplaced. Will the record mark the dawn of a new era of metal? No. Will you have heard something evening remotely similar if you own a pair of ears? Most likely. But is that the point? No. Hardcore thrash heads should look elsewhere if they want Ride The Lightning’s sequel. MENTOR makes well-written, likeable and undeniably catchy metal music that evokes everyone’s inner Neanderthal and there is nothing more we need ask of them. They hit another home run on the production side too. Paying due respect to their respective styles: guitars crunch and bite with a hardcore thwomp, the bass finds adequate breathing room with thunderous tones akin to TESTAMENT’s Practice What You Preach, and the whole record reeks of a familiar black metal DIY vibe. In other words, MENTOR packs a punch and you feel it.
MENTOR don’t really put a foot wrong on Wolves… and while some will argue that only follows since they put their feet strictly in the footsteps of their predecessors, this would be to miss the record’s purpose entirely. It’s impossible not to run this album from cover to cover without an ear-to-ear grin and devil horns firmly thrust to the skies – a wonderfully familiar, yet not derivative, throwback with MENTOR’s own spin of blood and guts. If there were any band to scream the horror thesaurus and fill your mind with memorable riffs; you’d want it to be them.
Rating: 9/10
Wolves, Wraiths And Witches is set for release on November 10th via Pagan Records.
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