Discovering bands you’ve not heard of before is always fun – right? Especially when they turn out to be rather good. That most certainly applies to Wind Wraith and their debut album The Fortune Teller’s Gaze.
It was originally released back in 2004 though has a twenty year anniversary re-issue. I found it by accident a couple of weeks ago whilst watching a news story on YouTube.
In the right hand side column amongst the thumbnails was one which caught my eye looking like it was music-related. Was the album cover.
On clicking through I was watching a video for one of the songs from Wind Wraith’s The Fortune Teller’s Gaze. Can’t recall which one, but it was dammed good. Heavy scorching power metal with (I thought) a strong New Wave of British Heavy Metal influence.
Along the lines of say Helloween, Diamond Head, Tygers of Pan Tang, Raven and late 1970s style Judas Priest. Had to get myself a copy and duly tracked a CD down from Sonic Age Records. It was the original, not the twentieth anniversary version (I’ll get to that later).
What a monster of an album it is. Crushing, gut wrenching heavy riffs cut and slash freely. The solos all fit the songs very well with huge churning rhythm guitars underneath. Galloping bass, big drums and big vocals too.
War in the Sun, The title track and Dragon Riders take no prisoners. A towering trio to start the album. Check out Dragon Riders and see what you think:
Watching Over Me gives a bit of a breather from the onslaught being a slightly melancholic ballad yet with some bite to it. The back to the heavy stuff with the speedy duo of Millennium Horror and Wind Wraith.
Shameless Desires punchy and catchy. High Hopes dark and powerful as it Tempted by Death.
Then the eight minutes of Ancient Tales goes full on power prog with the big chords and scorching soloing alternating with almost folksy pastoral bits and even (as the booklet notes) a “medieval section” with flutes and whatnot.
And on this original version of the album there’s a bonkers cover of Elvis Presley’s Burning Love. I’m not sure if that’s on the reissue.
Most impressed with Wind Wraith. Looking at their web site, the formed in 2000 with after The Fortune Teller’s Gaze they released a second album – Minions of Metal – in 2006 then disappeared for a couple of decades and are now working on a new album to be titled The Devil’s Songbook.
I most certainly recommend you check out The Fortune Teller’s Gaze. The anniversary edition CD is available via the band’s web site as is a vinyl version:
https://www.windwraith.com
Expect you’ll find it in other places.
As for digital if that’s your bag, found the original available to stream and MP3 on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/4hi8opz
The new album from Tokyo Blade is due tomorrow (17 January 2025). Looking forward to that for some NWOBHM. A review of that will follow.
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