The Wraith

The Wraith is post-punk for darklings and the soundtrack to your favorite goth gathering. On 2024 sophomore album Ghost March, tribal drums and bass propel angular guitars and vocalist Harley Mace’s ominous embrace of inevitable (and maybe welcome) oblivion. With influences including <a href="spotify:artist:0Zy4ncr8h1jd7Nzr9946fD" data-name="Killing Joke">Killing Joke</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:19I4tYiChJoxEO5EuviXpz" data-name="AFI">AFI</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1cXi8ALPQCBHZbf0EgP4Ey" data-name="Misfits">Misfits</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0blJzvevdXrp21YeI2vbco" data-name="Type O Negative">Type O Negative</a>, early <a href="spotify:artist:49DW3KvkyjHO35mK1JnSyS" data-name="The Cult">The Cult</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:7bu3H8JO7d0UbMoVzbo70s" data-name="The Cure">The Cure</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6VeL8VhaMjHTPc5uovFl3h" data-name="The Damned">The Damned</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:7zeHJIIfNStVfxlbT72UwY" data-name="Peter Murphy">Peter Murphy</a>, The Wraith’s bleak, taut verses convulse into huge hooks draped in (fallen) angelic synths on bipolar deathrock and darkwave bangers you’ll be singing after a single spin yet still discovering years later.

Formed by guitarist Kaz Alvis in Los Angeles in 2016, The Wraith’s early charged, chaotic West Coast shows honed the songs that became their cult-classic Shadow Flag debut EP a year later. They signed with Southern Lord Records for critically acclaimed first full-length, Gloom Ballet, sharing stages with <a href="spotify:artist:4HLWX9kzfraiCsTvrxJEXm" data-name="The Chameleons">The Chameleons</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4oPMm2idleIKLdBWgZilSi" data-name="T.S.O.L.">T.S.O.L.</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1AeC9AuzqGc3IXMC2T5xny" data-name="Zakk Wylde">Zakk Wylde</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4vJgvzfdA3q1KFsNl3GFvc" data-name="Spear Of Destiny">Spear Of Destiny</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0G8bGUx84CkQb35X0Z5TS6" data-name="Rikk Agnew">Rikk Agnew</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:6mEohczxsctzkEIU0WAeWD" data-name="Christian Death">Christian Death</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:16nn7kCHPWIB6uK09GQCNI" data-name="Social Distortion">Social Distortion</a>).

The Wraith returned in 2023, completed by bassist Paul Rogers, drummer Anatolii Lövochkin, and guitarist Jose V., playing regional shows with <a href="spotify:artist:0Z1UczcSjwKNuv4HgdjH3b" data-name="The 69 Eyes">The 69 Eyes</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7kNH9Eo1oB8yI9lEwekRvp" data-name="Nox Novacula">Nox Novacula</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:6mPxn8ImLflIQ8bYihQMFp" data-name="Calabrese">Calabrese</a> before Ghost March dropped in April. A furious yet cinematic fever dream of dystopian visions, Ghost March pulses and breathes like a living organism, The Wraith’s future-facing deathrock sweating and shuddering through ten wounded yet defiant tracks.