To Kill to Live to Kill

What a comeback this album was. It took eight years, but it arrived at last. Who knows what transpired at Manticora’s camp during all these years that made the wait for the follow up to 2010’s Safe so long, but damn if it was fucking worth it. If anything, these eight long years allowed the band to return in great form, they sound fresh and revitalised, which allowed them to craft the beast of an album that To Kill to Live to Kill is.

Manticora always sounded like themselves, they don’t sound like ''x mixed with y''. Their brand of power metal was always more in line with that particular sound of early '00 power metal bands like Persuader or Dark at Dawn, but heavier, darker, with many progressive elements and exquisite songwriting. This album is not progressive in the strict sense of the word, as the foundation for Manticora’s songwriting was always heavy, thrashy riffs with a great sense of melody and a soaring vocalist, but they always took it a couple of steps further, both in terms of technicality and adventurous songwriting. So, in the end, To Kill to Live to Kill is an album that’s easy to listen, there are lots of catchy melodies and passages, which are combined with the eclectic and adventurous songwriting approach characteristic of these Danes.

The band makes an incredible job of combining neck-breaking numbers like the unrelenting combo of ''Echoes of a Silent Scream'' and ''Through the Eyes of the Killer'', choke-full of riffs, soaring melodies and pounding rythms, with more progressive and diversified tracks like ''Trough the Eyes of the Killer (Revival of the Muse that Is Violence)'' -great title, by the way- or the 9 minute behemoth of ''Growth''. The best part of it all is that at no point of the album I feel the urge to reach for the skip button, the songs are so incredibly well-crafted that they compel you to keep listening, and that’s because these guys are just so good at writing hooks and captivating melodies. Seriously, there’s no filler here, everything is where it’s supposed to be, the riffs and leads are excellent, the bass and drums are unrelentingly punishing and the vocal duties, both clean and harsh, are top-notch.

The album is also soaked in this ominous and brooding aura, which coupled with the massive sound of the music, courtesy of a great production job, only helps to accentuate the heaviness of the brand of power metal that these guys are known for. The vocal melodies on the verses of ''Growth'' are a perfect example, they’re both enthralling and menacing at the same time, even more so if you take the lyrics into account. And let me tell you, it fits the music so damn well, being that the album is based on a book written by vocalist Larsen some time ago. Naturally, I haven’t read it, but from what I can gather from the lyrics and the song titles it’s no pleasant affair.

To Kill to Live to Kill is an amazing metal album. This is not an album that can be appreciated in one run, not because it’s overly complex, but because the songs are teeming with ideas and they’re all so wonderfully executed that it takes a couple of listens to fully appreciate everything that is at play. I’ve been playing this album ever since it came out and it’s so damn good. I know someone else will describe it ten times better than I did but I hope I could at least paint a general picture of what this album is about. If you’re into bands like Outworld, Beyond Twilight, Brainstorm, even Persuader, To Kill to Live to Kill is a must have and some of the best metal 2018 has to offer.