Wrathchild America - Climbin' The Walls / 3-D

Wrathchild America initially formed in 1978 under the name Atlantis and then Tyrant. They went through a handful of member changes and then when Brad Divens joined in 1983, after a couple of years in Kix, his studio experience allowed him to help with song construction and give them some direction.  Unfortunately, while they had a pretty good reputation as a live band, by the time their debut album was released in 1989 (delayed by a year due to another band named Wrathchild, hence the “America”) musical tastes were changing and they never really got their just due.  They did manage to release a second album in 1991, but with the explosion of grunge, it was even less successful and Atlantic Records dropped them.  This newly released double CD includes both of these releases along with two bonus cuts.  

From the time Divens joined until they signed their major label deal, the band focused on rehearsing and playing live.  They often played five nights a week and since the clubs wanted covers they learned how to play alot of different styles.  Due to this, there ended up being a lot of variety and diversity on their debut album Climbin’ The Walls.  The album opens strongly with the title track, a fast-paced thrasher that also has some interesting tempo shifts throughout.  Hell's Gates is up next and is a hard-charging track, that sounds a little like Iron Maiden if they had more of a thrash edge.  It has some impressive guitar work along with Shannon Larkin's drumming.  The aforementioned diversity comes into play with "No Deposit, No Return," a fun, kind of gritty rocker with a hint of blues and a really nice slower acoustic passage about halfway through.  The album's instrumental track "Hernia" does a great job of showcasing the musicianship of the band, but the song itself is a little lackluster.  The nearly six minute “London After Midnight” is probably the most interesting track on the album.  The foundation of the song is very Iron Maiden sounding, but with a strong goth element, as you might expect by the title.  With its B horror movie lyrics, "Candy From A Madman" is straight ahead rock somewhat in the vein of NWOBHM, but with an instrumental interlude that is almost whimsical.  "Silent Darkness (Smothered Life)" has elements of classic rock, metal and thrash with more dark horror lyrics, this time about being buried alive during a prank and then returning from the grave for revenge.  Their cover of Pink Floyd’s time doesn’t stray too far from the original but does have more of a metal edge especially in the crunching guitar work.  Closing out the album is “Day Of The Thunder,” a driving rocker that is somewhat reminiscent of Iron Maiden both lyrically and musically, although not as heavy.  Climbin’ The Walls is a solid debut, but with one big drawback for me, which is the thin and somewhat flat production.  

While the debut had some diversity, their sophomore release 3-D, which was produced by in demand producer Alex Perialis, took things to another level in both quality and diversity, making it hard to believe it’s the same band.  “3-D Man” gets things going and is an aggressive, in-your-face track that sounds like Metallica if they played jazz.  With its walking bass line “Spy” is a super funky rocker that is extremely well-played and just makes for a fun listen.  Melding funk and technical metal, “Gentleman Death” is an album highlight with some very strong guitar work, followed by “Forever Alone,” a solid groove metal track that was a precursor to where they would go in Souls At Zero (more on that later).  The six minute “Draintime” is an impressive track with a lot of prog tendencies shifting back and forth from softer acoustic passages to heavy power metal.  “Surrounded By Idiots” is a fun, funky trash tune with a lot of twisting, turning instrumental passages that brings to mind Anthrax and Scatterbrain.  The six and half minute “Desert Smiles” is a very dynamic song with constantly shifting tempos that go from intense thrash to an acoustic guitar instrumental section and even throws in some talkbox before segueing into the brutal, absolutely in your face “What’s Your Pleasure?,” which will have you thinking Anthrax.  The instrumental “Prego” (as in “it’s in there” from the old pasta sauce commercials) is a fun, all over the place, instrumental that crams in about every style of music known to man.  It really shows the band’s musical prowess, even sounds like the theme song to some offbeat old school cartoon at times.  Probably one of the album’s weakest tracks is “Another Namelesss Face,” a bluesy rock tune with a metal edge that’s a little too plodding and missing the fun edge that can be found on the rest of the album.  The album wraps up with “//,” a straight-ahead, breakneck paced thrash tune with an inexplicable reggae section in the middle.  Also included on disc two are a fun cover of Albert Collins’ blues track “I Ain’t Drunk, I’m Just Drinking,” which sticks pretty close to the original, but adds a little metal punch, and an edited version of “Surrounded By Idiots.”  It's a shame their timing was just a little off, because listening back to these albums it's apparent that if they were released a few years earlier, they would be much better known.  Interestingly, once they were dropped from Atlantic Records in 1992, the band changed up their style. renamed themselves Souls At Zero and released a couple more albums under that name.  Following that band, Larkin went on to drum for Ugly Kid Joe and then played with Godsmack for over twenty years, while Divens became an in-demand audio engineer, working with artists like Motley Crue, Cyndi Lauper, Garbage and HIM.

(Dissonance Productions)