Best of 2006 - 2008

This 90-minute tape is a compilation of about 4 demos created under the Manticorum name in the last few years. The artist proved very prolific in that time, unleashing about 8 demos all of which were available online for varying lengths of time since creation. I believe he has since removed references to some of those releases, wishing to focus on this – his best - and future material only.

The style of music here is raw, yet often melodic Black Metal with numerous added sound effects. The basic style is recognizable throughout – pounding machined drums and raw muddy guitars with twisted multilayered vocals. The level of musicianship and song-writing is above average throughout, with quirky, short and often very catchy songs venturing into brutal realms pounding and adorned with the odd epic guitar passage. Material from 2008 is featured on Side A spilling over to track 1 of Side B with the rest being from 2006 & 7.

The tracks display a surprising compositional maturity and although lo-fi appear to be carefully arranged and structured with lots of lead breaks, quieter acoustic bits samples and vocal effects.

I can’t get into this 100% because as a full-length release, it is completely unstructured. Given the fairly uniform sound of the tracks, I am not sure if it would be possible but the compilation doesn’t quite work as simply a catalogue of the artist’s work. I fear that despite the obvious quality of the material, the average listener, like myself would tune out mid-way through side A. That being said Side A contains some real gems. My favourites would have to be 3 unnamed tracks at positions 2-4 and the ironically titled but excellently executed 6th track “The Apocalyptic Wintery Screams of Many Fatal and Mortal Deaths to Come”.

Side B begins with one of the faster 2008 tracks, which can be seen is more in tune with the faster older material, where the strobing kicks sometimes saturate the sound where the entire mix wobbles in time with the rhythm section. In general this material is a little simpler with more straight-forward BM vocals and arrangements. There are also 2 covers here “Flittermice as Satan’s Spies” by Darkthrone and “Hiidenforne Houkui Usvansa” by Horna the latter of which is a particularly kick to the groin with a faithful reproduction of the artist’s possessed screeching vocals. My favourite here would have to be Track 10 “Leifar” with its 3-guitar cascading into a maelstrom of overdriven blast-beats and crunchy guitars bearing down on the ears. The last track is also interesting due to its use of electronic drum and synthesizer effects over a sample of wind and whispering voices. Very unusual and eerie. In totality – a good collection of demos. Difficult to get into at first, but with plenty of interesting moments and great songs to make it worthwhile.

Originally published in Procession of Black Doom zine #4