Photo Credit:
Ryan Russell
There are times when an introduction to a band smacks you dead centre in the face and stops you in your tracks, one fine example being the debut EP from US band Wild Throne, only they additionally rip open your torso with great scything riffs and gnaw your insides with rhythms carrying more voracity than a rabid predator. The three track onslaught is much more than mere aggression though, lethal melodies and impossibly captivating sonic imagination just as greedily at work as the release provides an early major statement for 2014. Blood Maker is a dramatic entrance from a band destiny will have a lot of time for you suspect on the evidence of their impressive tempest.
Though the debut release from Wild Throne, the band have since 2009 already been crafting and honing their striking blend of progressive rock and melodic metal under original name Dog Shredder. With a couple vinyl EPs and numerous tours and shows with the likes of Dysrhythmia, Melt Banana, Kylesa, Marnie Stern, Helmet, and Black Cobra under their belt, the trio of Josh Holland (guitar/vocals), Noah Burns (drums) and Jeff Johnson (bass) have evolved into Wild Throne and announced this new chapter in riveting style. Recorded with producer Ross Robinson (At The Drive In, Machine Head, The Cure) after the band completed a US tour with Red Fang and Helms Alee, the EP declares the Bellingham, WA trio as not only a proposition to watch very closely but one to devour hungrily right now.
The Brutal Panda Records released EP smuggles all of its ready to erupt creative armoury into the imagination through the 
opening rhythmic intrigue of The Wrecking Ball Unchained, the coaxing dramatic beats of Burns, soon aided by the expressive potent vocals of Holland, hypnotically distracting the senses. It is a transfixing start which belies the lying in wait tempest which soon has its moment and bursts through the ears in a torrential storm of invention and passion. Riffs and rhythms stalk and incite with determination and skill whilst the bass of Johnson adds a throatiness which only further seduces but it is the fiery inventive sonic flames and twists Holland also unleashes alongside his stirring vocals which cement the captivation. It is a powerful almost tempestuous engagement with plenty to justify the comparisons to bands such as The Mars Volta, Helms Alee, and These Arms Are Snakes, Wild Throne has drawn, but also in many ways we would add Manic Street Preachers in their early days, Black Tusk, and Muse for various aspects and essences which expel their bait throughout the tremendous track.
Ebbing and flowing like a tidal wave of energy and emotion, the opening majesty is soon equalled in presence and depth by Shadow Deserts, a track with an acidic call from its first breath aligned to another pulsating bass growl and rhythmic agitation. Like its predecessor, the song’s start is the perfect set up and doorway into the immediately following tsunami of passion and intensity. The celestial, bordering ethereal, ambience and vocals add another avenue to explore within the rage whilst the earnest vocal squalls and compelling punk fury of the track skirted by further melodic imagination and classic metal exploration, simply enslaves an already feistily hungry appetite for band and EP.
From the exhausting and searing heat of the second song, the title track takes over and instantly opens a fiercer acrid vat of sonic exploration and senses searing enterprise. More At The Drive In than Mars Volta with a toxin of psychedelic vitriol to the expansive and unbridled fire of guitar and vocals, the track is a breath-taking plunge into rapacious creative rabidity and exhaustive passion. The song smothers and permeates every synapse and cell with an irresistible contagion and alone brings an intense spotlight upon the band, which the other songs of course only inflame.
Blood Maker will not be the first time that Wild Throne leaves people opened mouthed you can be quite sure of that, but it makes a very important and exhilarating base to explode further from.
10/10
RingMaster 06/03/2014
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