REVIEW: Mantar - "The Spell" (EP)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 31/03/2017

Label: Nuclear Blast

Mantar’s strength lies in their ability to maintain a perfect balance of dirty, underground grit and catchy stadium-bothering rock’n’roll ambition. Opening track “PestCrusade” demonstrates this in style. It is a complex track composed of shifting tempos and styles, encompassing shards of raging black metal, stop/start riffage and blasts of no-nonsense stoner punk.  The three flawless tracks that make up “The Spell” demonstrate that Mantar’s unique brand of heaviness is growing ever more potent.

“The Spell” 10” LP//DD track listing:

1. Pest Crusade

2. Age Of The Vril

3. The Spell (feat. Okoi Jones / Bölzer)

The Review:

Hamburg power duo make a welcome return to action with new EP “The Spell”. Following hot on the heels of last year’s excellent “Ode To The Flame” LP, this release is a short sharp reminder of the band’s fierce doomed-out black metal mayhem.

Mantar’s strength lies in their ability to maintain a perfect balance of dirty, underground grit and catchy stadium-bothering rock’n’roll ambition. Opening track “Pest Crusade” demonstrates this in style. It is a complex track composed of shifting tempos and styles, encompassing shards of raging black metal, stop/start riffage and blasts of no-nonsense stoner punk. Somehow the band still manage to make this sound like a fist-pumping anthem which is no mean feat.

“Age Of The Vril” is more straightforward affair, lumbering doom verses giving way to epic choruses that erupt into a high-octane race to the finishing line. “The Spell” rounds things off with Mantar at their most basic, a two-chord rock’n’roll thrash that the band milk for maximum results. They are aided by guest vocals from Okoi Jones of Bolzer who aids an air of grandeur to the pause for breath before one last charge into the void.

The three flawless tracks that make up “The Spell” demonstrate that Mantar’s unique brand of heaviness is growing ever more potent. Hopefully they are back soon with a full length to deliver on the tantalising promise of this release.

“The Spell” is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

 



FFO: Tombs, Black Cobra, Graves At Sea, Mortals

ALBUM REVIEW: Black Tomb - "Black Tomb"

By: Stiq

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 31/10/2016

Label: Graven Earth Records |

Hellas Records

“Black Tomb” CS//DD//LP track listing:

1). Under the Pine

2). Eyes at Midnight

3). Swine

4). Mortuary Rites

5). Draped in Flesh

6). Lust and Saturn

7). Turning Worm

8). Church on the Hill

The Review:

Black Tomb will bring the darkness out of you. Stomping though the muck of an empty soul. A once innocent Doom/Stoner child left rotting in a sludgy old church basement with his warped Electric Wizard records and beaten mercilessly with raw electric power from an old musty amp caked in depravity.

               

The mind can’t help but get lost in powerful riffs drenched in the fumes of hatred and despair while the fuzz shakes your core and vibrates the cavity causing all vital organs to hit the floor with a splat, while you bang your head against the wall from sheer madness. This is certainly something you’re going to want to listen to very very loud and with little regard to your own mental stability.

Hailing from New England, Black Tomb has brought to the table their debut self titled release just in time for the Halloween season. Now you can keep all the candy for yourself by scaring away all

those pesky trick-or-treaters, while leaving a bad taste in your neighbors mouth.

               

This album is going to be a staple for your record collection and will be released on double disc vinyl for your listening pleasure soon enough. Until then, feel free to rot what’s left of your already decaying brains by listening to them here

p.s. Drug use is highly recommended while ingesting this noise.

“Black Tomb” is available digitally here and on cassette here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

FFO: Graves at Sea, Cough, Electric Wizard, Fistula