American band Wanted formed in the summer of 2021. Their sound is a mixture of hard rock and heavy metal with strong AOR tendencies. Guitarist Alan Mares cites Ratt, Accept, Dokken, Lion, 220 Volt as well as Alien and Strangeways as their main influences and says: “We feel like we truly pull influence across all ends from that era of sound, which sets us apart from a lot of the market here in the U.S.”
Wanted’s first album »Chain Reaction« was released in 2022. According to the guitarist, “it’s a very raw album. We had a very small budget and cut guitars, bass, drums and vocals in three days, which seems like a miracle for us to do nowadays.” Nevertheless, »Chain Reaction« was a promising start for a very young band.
However, the follow-up »Late Attraction« (2023) was a much more polished affair, as Alan Mares explains: “We invested a bit more into this album and had a better idea of what we wanted going into the recording session of this album. This album had a more diverse sound as well, and we experimented a lot with different styles that we didn’t have on the previous title.”
»Late Attraction« was followed by »Cutting Edge« in 2025. Apart from Alan Mares, Christian Shonts (guitars), Paul Slezak (bass) and newest member Chris Rajt (drums) are playing on the album. “From the performance to the quality of production, marketing, and overall approach to creating this album, »Cutting Edge« is the standout of the current three albums,” comments Mares. “Again, it only grew into something larger because we learned from the previous album. This was the first release where we felt like we could stand strong on our own feet with some of our contemporaries. It was very exciting to see the feedback we got for the record and the amount our fanbase had grown.”
Progressing with each record, Wanted are currently working on their fourth studio album, which will also be released via High Roller Records.