After 10 years the Austrian Thrash Metal band WILDHUNT, releases its second album entitled “Aletheia”.
The album begins with a gentle and dreamy introduction (“Touching the Ground”), as if we are touching the ground where our adventure in search of truth will begin, and slowly the drums and guitars come in dynamically, as if preparing us for our steps. Then the rhythm and intensity change to a more thrash style, building excitement within us for what is to come.
We move on to “The Holy Pale”, where the lyrics refer to Vlad the Impaler and heritage as madness experienced by the narrator. The guitars manage to maintain the excitement promised by the intro. In the middle of the song, the tempo slows down with a breakdown clearly inspired by historic thrash bands and continues with a guitar solo, supported by the other instruments. The intensity and speed peak and then they return to complete the song.
After a pause, we move straight into “Made Man”, which touches on existential issues of moral decline, disappointment in loved ones, the torment experienced by the narrator, and the need for a new beginning, living a nightmare. The outburst is achieved with the instruments playing fast and vocals. The band perfectly interprets the torment experienced by the narrator until suddenly we hear the bass louder. A guitar solo is followed by an amazing bass solo, playing in parallel in such a way that keeps us listening actively for quite some time. I make no secret of my enthusiasm when I heard this part of the song. Returning to Thrash again, we feel the narrator’s longing for a new beginning, and the guitars once again show off their skills towards the end of the song. Of course, there’s another solo! It’s as if it confirms the narrator’s need to express the pain that burns inside him.
Then we move on to a mysterious and ethereal instrumental, “Kanashibari”, and feel a sudden dread about what awaits us next… and yet we don’t expect it.
The “Frozen Dreams” begins with epic guitars that stand tall, an introduction that froze me. It literally took my breath away and continued that way. The expressiveness of the guitars is terrifying, like the creature that haunts the narrator. Truly speechless. That’s when I came to the conclusion that this is not just a simple thrash album, but an exceptional work that the band devoted as much time as it took to. The flow changes to other rhythms with the guitar soloing while the rest of the instruments play loudly. In the middle of the song, we continue with more adventurous thrash and mid-tempo structures. I would have liked it to have the same feel and continuity as it had at the beginning, but in the end, I am not disappointed.
In the song “Aletheia”, after its calm introduction and melodic and rhythmic guitars, the vocals are more expressive than in the previous songs. This track alone contains a chorus and makes us, the listeners, sing along, which was not the case in the other tracks. The thrash/power compositions and melodies of the song become intense here, keeping us excited and making us “live” it.
The epilogue belongs to “Sole Voyage”, the longest track on the album at 11:28 minutes, divided into five parts. It is a journey of self-awareness and the search for meaning, representing the stages of evolution and inner transformation. The thrash / power developement continues in the first part, with the narrator taking the first step to overcome an environment surrounded by wolves. In the second part, the narrator’s journey begins even more powerfully and quickly, with people who share the same values by his side. Suddenly, it stops with an exotic instrumental part, and then the instruments come in with intensity and the vocals interpret the story with epicness. Then, in the fourth part, silence reigns, with only the instruments guiding the course of the story, the guitars playing as if revealing a light to us. It is the light of the moon that strikes the narrator. The epic compositions lead us to the destination of the journey, in the last part. Ultimately, the meaning was not something accessible, but the search itself that gives meaning to life and knowledge.
Overall, WILDHUNT’s work, ten years after their first release, is heavily influenced by epic heavy metal bands, with listeners perhaps sensing influences from bands such as MANILLA ROAD (Mystification), ETERNAL CHAMPION but also from thrash bands such as ANNIHILATOR and METAL CHURCH. The album’s compositions are amazing, differing from the band’s previous album, which was entirely a thrash full length: Overall, the included compositions are not following the traditional expected structure of your next door thrash / power release.
At the end of the day this is a release that will stick on your daily playlist. Time will tell how long this desire will last, but I saw potential that made the CD worth buying.
WILDHUNT – Aletheia was released on January 2nd 2026 by Jawbreaker Records on Vinyl, CD and digital.
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