A new year, a new band, a new album. This time I had the pleasure of listening to “Aletheia”, the new album by the Austrians WILDHUNT, a Heavy Metal band with Power and Thrash Metal undertones that, to be honest, I was completely unaware of. I started listening to their 2016 album “Descending” to build as well informed an opinion as possible, and, at least on that album, I found a band sounding a bit more towards Thrash Metal, in the vein of bands like ANTHRAX, TANKARD, OVERKILL or TESTAMENT. As I progressed in my exploration, I had to simultaneously confirm and discard my first impressions because, on one hand, I did find elements of the mentioned bands in the songs of “Descending”, but at the same time, I could find a richness of their own in the way these Austrians made music (at that time) 10 years ago. Then, jumping to the new album, “Aletheia”, fresh out and released via Jawbreaker Records in digital, CD and 12″ vinyl formats, I found a band that, while preserving the essence with which it started (because it does preserve it), here, at least for me, I identified a more Heavy Metal sound. Even Wulfgar’s vocals are different from the second one. And I’ll be honest, I like it much more here. I managed to connect immediately with the opening track, ‘Touching The Ground’, an instrumental that reveals a secret identity and lays out this much more “epic” or even “progressive” sonority at times that envelops the album. Here things change; the band offers a different sound. It has another intention. There is more virtuosity, more technical richness, more epicness in some passages. Something I liked is that instrumental dominance. All the tracks on the album deliver that message: “this is an album for the music.” This is not to say that the vocal part is not important, it is, and quite a lot; in fact, this album wouldn’t have the same meaning had it been sung differently, but without a doubt, the music dominates, orients, directs. Like a torch illuminating the long path of the night. Finally, when one reads the lyrics of this album and circumscribes them within this music, the album makes sense; it becomes one. This is a journey into introspection, into the intention of finding the personal truth that we all defend and that we are obliged to explore as individuals. In conclusion, this album takes us on a path of mysticism, intricate sonorities and a truth for which to be and exist in the world. I’ll finish saying that my favorite track is the last one, ‘Sole Voyage’, a track that encloses the concept and that showcases the climax for music throughout the whole thing. More information here: www.facebook.com/wildhuntaustria, www.facebook.com/jawbreakerrecords