| Reviews for Ars Manifestia's The Red Behind |
| Ars Manifestia - The Red Behind - 75% |
| Written by ravenhearted
on August 2nd, 2009
|
| And the award for the most unintentionally hilarious album name goes to... Yeah, sometimes it might be a good idea to rethink your options before making your album title appeal to the funny-bone of the twelve year-old in all of us. Taking his band-name from the opening track of KVIST's now legendary first and only full-length, ARS MANIFESTIA is the solo vessel of one Italian acolyte going by the name of Harmful. As with KVIST, ARS MANIFESTIA also focuses on the melodic side of raw Black Metal, paying respects to the masters of old through his music. After listening to "The Red Behind", I was relieved to discover that the album title is indeed the most ridiculous part of the project. The music itself is a completely different story, and unlike the title, it will not make your friends giggle like retards at their very mention. Harmful is obviously a man rich on ideas, and the great riffs and melodies are plentiful throughout the album. In fact, the ideas are so varied that it sometimes comes at the cost of preserving a real song-structure, with too many aspects crammed into one piece of music. One moment we are being treated to a DRUDKH-like atmospheric and mellow section, for so to be catapulted into a flurry of GORGOROTH-influenced mayhem, then suddenly breaking into an acoustic interlude. As such, ARS MANIFESTIA obviously channels a lot of different influences, and often with excellent skill and precision, but because of this the whole album feels like a quilt of ideas that don't always fit together. Now, thus far this review might seem unfairly harsh, and fans of the band are probably shaking their heads and preparing to unleash the fucking keyboard-fury. However, the fact is that "The Red Behind" is full of brilliant moments, and while the song-structure leaves much to be desired at times, ARS MANIFESTIA seems to be sitting on a potential masterpiece. The drums are sloppy and mixed in terribly, but that's more of a rule than an exception for one-man bands. It's the riffs that keeps this album interesting throughout its more than 70 minutes runtime, and they range from good to fantastic. Often uplifting and empowering by nature, this is Melodic Black Metal without any use of synths, female-choruses or other bogus, and it really shines. The 20-minutes long closing track even opens with a riff that sounds close to the current Black'n'Roll trend, then evolves into a melancholic opus, again displaying the myriad of different sounds at work. If ARS MANIFESTIA improves at bridging his riffs and melodies, we will definitely not have heard the end of this project. It takes a special kind of talent to record a 70-minute Black Metal album and still managing to keep it fresh and engaging all the way through. "The Red Behind" is a fresh gust of wind, despite a title that makes it the butt of many jokes. (Online August 2, 2009) Ailo Ravna Written for the Metal Observer |