Metalcatto
This year keeps throwing lots and lots of Thrash at us. As if the Metal Gods were offended we didn’t have a Best Of category for Thrash last year (there just weren’t enough good albums, Oxygen Destroyer won that easily). White Mantis’s Arrows At The Sun is here to join the rapidly growing competition in this niche that, despite hard times, never dies! But can the band stand out from the pack, or will we just get more 80s nostalgia that makes me want to quit? Let’s find out!
Well, this is old school indeed. As in, Sodom and Overkill got mixed together. It’s less polished than your more mainstream Thrash, but still distant from more extreme styles. The ideas in Arrows are rather simple. There aren’t any fancy intros or outros and thankfully no strange interludes. No overreaching plot, just a series of tracks blasting riffs as fast as possible and offering that bar-fight energy only this style can portray. Even if space Metal seems to be the biggest theme here, I wouldn’t call this weird a la Voivod. It’s more traditional than your grandma.
The most nostalgic thing here is the vocals for sure. They really bring back that Slayer energy. They’re filthy and unrefined. The band follows the old formula of just having the dude scream whenever the riff hits a violent part. It’s simple, but effective. Though, I must admit that in this era, that makes me wonder why not return to the classics if that’s what I’m getting. But then I remember most old Thrash has potato production, and sometimes my ears need a break from all the white noise you degenerates send me every week.
Having said all those almost flattering things, I should mention that if you were expecting something that subverts the Thrash status quo, you’d be left waiting, because Arrows is safer than flying—and not like flying, when things go wrong, they don’t go catastrophically wrong. The album stays within effective lines. If anything, I fault it for not being hungrier when it comes to ideas and emotion, but then it’s also true there aren’t too many Thrash albums today that keep things this understandable. So, probably if you already suffer back pain, this thing is for you.
I might have mixed feelings about such a retro album, but maybe it’s time for retro-Thrash to get more love—or maybe Thrash has always been retro. White Mantis offers a glimpse of what the past could’ve looked like if technology had been there for the big bands. Arrows At The Sun is a fun album that offers a good reward for next to no risk, so if you love those machine-gun riffs, you’ll feel right at home.
Label: High Roller Records
Release date: August 22, 2025
Website: https://whitemantisthrash.bandcamp.com
Country: Germany
Score: 3.0/5.0
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