Reviews: Mantar, Omnium Gatherum, A Forest Of Stars, Malevolent Creation (Reviews By Paul H)

Mantar: The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze (Nuclear Blast)

For a two-piece the power that the German/Turkish duo of Mantar create is jaw dropping. Huge crashing riffs, blasting beats and a guttural vocal performance that leaves you reaching for the Strepsils. This is the third release from Erinc Sakarya (drums/vocals) and Hanno Klanhardt (guitars/vocals) and it ramps up the pace from early on. I’m vaguely familiar with their sound but The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze is certainly a heavy beast of an album; the sludgy industrial blackened metal which they produce is certainly something to bang the head to. Obey The Obscene could easily feature on new releases by Combichrist, The Prodigy or Marilyn Manson, such is the infectious beat the duo generate. With some infectious, almost dance beats underpinning huge crushing riffs and wave after wave of thundering drum beats, this is an album that mixes Rob Zombie with the cement mixer heaviness of Crowbar. Snarling, angry and yet at times beguiling, I’m now a little annoyed I missed the band at BOA. 8/10

Omnium Gatherum: The Burning Cold (Century Media)

When we talk of epic pieces of work, we often exaggerate, using the term far too loosely. However, when this album arrived for review, I was intrigued. I knew that the band were Finnish, I knew that they’d been around for some time, although 1996 was a little longer than I’d believed, and I knew that they combined a mix of melody and death metal in an interesting combination. The Burning Cold surpassed all my expectations; a classic slice combining bone crushing metal with some AOR melodies which hit at the heartstrings. As original member, guitarist and main songwriter Markus Vanhala referred to the band: “AOR melodies meet the growling cookie monster”. Comparisons with their countrymen Amorphis is inevitable, although I would wager that the melody that underpins The Burning Cold is on a par with the Finns latest, the fabulous Queen Of Time. New drummer Tuomo Latvala makes his Omnium debut here and supplies a solid foundation for the band. The guitar work of Vanhala and Joonas Koto is sublime, whilst keyboard player Aapo Koivisto adds perfect layers and harmonies to add depth and melody.

The progressive side of the band is never far away, with the beautiful Rest In Your Heart, Be The Sky and penultimate track Planet Scale all crafted with care. The album focuses on two themes; the first on great human tragedies that happen all around us, whilst the second theme considers the human emotion condition, why we fear death so much and the impact our emotions can have on us. With such raw subject matter, it’s unsurprising that this is an emotional rollercoaster. However, all this talk of emotion doesn’t allow the intensity and heaviness to drop and there are times, such as the ferocious battering on The Fearless Entity where Omnium Gatherum really let loose with their death metal roots, vocalist Jukka Pelkonen’s guttural roar flawless. The Burning Cold is the band’s eighth album, and it is stunning. Complex, intricate, delicate and yet powerful and base at times. A piece of art which requires multiple listens to absorb. This is a faultless album and when Vanhala states that his songwriting has risen to a new level, who are we to challenge. Quite magnificent. 10/10

A Forest Of Stars: Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes (Prophecy Productions)

The star is very much in the ascendency for A Forest Of Stars. The Leeds based band have been delivering their ghostly black metal since 2007 and Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes follows on from 2015’s Beware The Sword You Cannot See. With the band very much focused on the mixture of black metal, folk, psychedelia and ambient, this release takes their level up a notch, with lengthy, meandering and chaotic tracks hypnotic in their effect. Take Tombward Bound for example; crazy blast beats, cascading lines which then transcend into a calming Opeth style middle section before the synths slowly rebuild the atmosphere. 

The desperate vocals of Mister Curse and the haunting vocal of Katheryne, Queen Of Ghosts merging with elements of Pink Floyd before the blistering black metal takes control once more. Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes is a captivating album, intricate, subtle, delicate and rampant, with the changing passages hooking the listener and enveloping you into the middle of the carnage. With the band having played a UK tour, Bloodstock and on the list for a good slot at Damnation in November, this is a fantastic album that demanded repeat listens. 8/10

Malevolent Creation: The Ten Commandments (Roadrunner Records)

With the recent untimely death of original vocalist Brett Hoffman, the chance to reflect on Malevolent Creation’s stunning debut album seemed apt. Originally released in 1991, this album contains ten tracks of thrashy death metal which remains as brutally impressive today as it did all those years ago. The opening crushing riffs of Memorial Arrangements, with its grim condemnation to rot forever, merge into the thunderous Premature Burial, Mark Simpson’s blasting drumming underpinning the entire album. It was here that Hoffman opens the snarling visceral vocals which would forever be a blueprint in the world of death metal. 

With Phil Fasciana and Jeff Juszkiewcz trading monstrously heavy riffs and the bludgeoning bass lines of Jason Blackowicz all in the metal pot, The Ten Commandments is an all-time classic of the genre and the opening salvo for a band who are still delivering quality death metal. Tracks such as the gnarly Multiple Stab Wounds, Impaled Existence with its undercurrent of disturbing aggression, the groove of Sacrificial Annihilation and the closing anthem Malevolent Creation all remain legendary tracks 27 years later. A must have album. 9/10