Album Review: Wildhunt - Aletheia
Reviewed by Gareth Pugh
I first became aware of Wildhunt around ten years ago when I chanced to hear their debut album ‘Descending’ and was impressed enough to go out and buy it, and then everything seemed to go quiet. Now a decade later comes a surprising follow-up album ‘Aletheia’. Much has changed in between the two albums and the only remaining (and constant) band member is frontman Wolfgang Elwitschger (vocals and guitars), who is joined by Julian Malkmus on second guitar, Robbie Nöbauer on bass, and Lukas Lobnig on drums.
Starting with a prolonged intro: ‘Touching the Ground’ a progressive and atmospheric track, the album proper starts with ‘The Holy Pale’, a seven-minute epic with plenty of changes in pace, gnarly riffing and Wolfgang’s melodic vocals all over it. The next is a single that actually came out nine years ago, but I have to admit passed me by, ‘Man Made’ has been re-recorded with the latest line-up and is brick heavy, yet melodic, with some almost jazz like riffs and an avant-garde feel to the whole song. The first half of the album ends with a short instrumental ‘Kanashibari’.
‘In Frozen Dreams’ starts with some Maiden like harmony leads and contains more complex riff patterns and some phenomenal drumming, while the vocals melodies really standout. The title-track and penultimate song on the album is probably the catchiest with a tremendous chorus and after a sumptuous acoustic intro, builds with a huge epic soundscape. That ambition is overshadowed though by album closer ‘Sole Voyage’ an amazing twelve-minute beast that takes us a on a journey to hell and back, in a good way, with riffs and changes of atmosphere and even a dreamy mid-section.
Wildhunt return with a fantastic new progressive thrash album, that will be of interest to fans of Coroner and Paradox, and while it might not be on many people’s end of year lists, it’s a hugely enjoyable start to 2026, let’s hope we don’t have to wait until 2036 for album number three. Welcome back.
