Reviews: Hiraes, Manticora, Tanin’iver (Reviews By Matt Bladen, Zak Skane & Rick Eaglestone)

Hiraes - Dormant (Napalm Records) [Matt Bladen]

Featuring members of Dawn Of Disease and Critical Mess, Hiraes are a melodeath band with a bit more aggression than many in the genre. Dormant is their second album following on from Solitary in 2021 they expand on their debut with this second album, a slicker more expressive follow up. 

Pulsing with electronics to create a dark atmosphere, the harmonic guitars are used well to give some blistering riffs and some duelling solos, the aggression and introspection a bit more pronounced than with other melodeath bands as the harsh vocals are rabid, shifting to black metal squawks along with death growls and some cleans on Undercurrent, singer Britta comes out of this record as the star attraction. It’s sonically very layered, increasing the intensity from the debut as the drumming goes full force on tracks such as About Lies, where the pace ebbs and flows. 

There’s a lot to like here, progressive enough that it never gets boring, there’s plenty of musical experimentation to underscore the brutal death metal parts, melodic guitars for the shred heads and those rage-filled vocals, wrap it all up in a Jens Bogren mix/master and it’s got the sound favoured by that legendary “Gothenburg Scene”. 

Hiraes’ second album announces their long term goal to become talked about in the same breath as bands such as Dark Tranquillity and Arch Enemy, they will not be Dormant for very long. 8/10

Manticora – Mycelium (Mighty Music) [Zak Skane]

Formed in 1997 the power metallers Manticora have had a nine album legacy which includes a critically acclaimed two-album concept that co-relates to a 334-page novel written by the band’s singer Lars F. Larsen. With their new release Mycelium the band have scaled down a bit and decided to do only a 48 minute LP.

This album really delivers the goods when it comes to providing the thrash and power metal energy especially on song like Necropolitants, Demonday, Golem Sapiens and Beast Of The Fall where the guitarists Kristian and Stefan really pulls off the wrist snapping riffs. through these songs the band also know how to add different styles of the subgenres in such modern styles such as groove metal with the with in the guitar riffs in songs like Mycelium, extreme metal and blackened metal in songs like Demonday and also adding some progressive sections in Memento. 

The song Angel Of The Spring adds in folk styles elements with it’s verging to beyond breaking point clean toned guitars strummed in Celtic style swinging rhythms accompanied to with waltz like pulses. The classical arrangements sound superb with the operative synths on the intro of Mycelium, the choirs in Beast Of The Fall and the piano and string arrangements in Equinox. Finally the drumming provided is ruthless as well as dynamic from his furious consistent double kick work in songs like Necropolitans to Día De Los Meurtos, the tribal styled grooves in Demonday to the soft but firm approach in Angel of the spring.

Some of the songs feel a bit too out of the singers key range where he struggles to hit the high notes in songs like Necropolitans, Golem Sapiens, so I feel like it would help those notes sit better if the arrangements tuned lower, but fear not songs like Mycelium and Beast Of The Fall is where Lars’s high notes sit perfectly. I also feel like sometimes the arrangements on songs like Angel Of The Spring can over power what Lars’s vocal levels and can result in masking the detailed lyrical content.

Overall this is a great suggestion for any power metal fan, even in the stripped down 48 minute mark Lars can still reveal his tales whist the band show their full musical capabilities. 7/10

Tanin’iver - Dark Evils Desecrate (Morning Star Heresy) [Rick Eaglestone]

Steeped in ancient mythology and the embodiment of one man’s creative spirit, forged in the cold flames of tragedy, loss, and personal struggle; an outpouring of blazing hatred and rage at a world blighted by sickness, cursed by violence and intolerance, drowning in greed and ignorance. Australian entity Tanin’iver unleash their fourth album Dark Evils Desecrate. Opener Another Worlds Hell opens with a great piece of dialogue which almost serves a disclaimer of sorts which is just as well as frankly the outpouring of vulgarity is joyous, this is then followed up by the venomous Disrepair after which I feel like I need soft kitty softly sung to me. 

Another wave of barraging blast beats and bile make up the entirety of Separatist, but it is hard not to encased with all the technical elements thrown in, then creeping in with a backdrop of an ominous swirling mist is Better The Devil which has some nice galloping drum patterns and guitar tones. Freedom Is Never Free sees nice directional shift but still manages the captures the albums grim; gritty aesthetic and its placement in particular adds a good dynamic which then leads into highlight track Soul Thief has almost an industrial heartbeat to it of which its instrumental nature really capitalises on. 

The remaining trilogy sees The Seer, Drowning On Dry Land and So Was Red almost go into an hellish battle within themselves for not only blackened death superiority but with the combined purpose to eviscerate and decimate the aural senses of the listener each serving as almost one track for every year since the last Tanin’iver release to remind everyone that their hammer blow precision and unwavering intensity demands to be acknowledged with a appreciation of savage consistency. A scathing, visceral outpouring. 7/10