There’s nothing like placing a CD in the tray, with at least a basic idea of what to expect, only to find yourself being entirely surprised at every twist and turn by a band who clearly revel in the wonders of an eclectic taste in music and who marvelled at the opportunity to get their own material down for posterity. Mantra are one such band. The CD arrived without fanfare or hyperbolic press release, and the first play through left an indelible impression, not only upon your humble reviewer, but also upon our dozing pet rabbit (a metal lover through and through) who promptly endeavoured to leap through the ceiling – note to self: must remember to turn the volume down before chucking on a new disc. Rabbit massacring tendencies aside, mantra’s opening gambit – a furious assault on the senses that recalls Mastadon’s ‘blood mountain’ period was a feint, a deftly delivered sleight of hand that hid a multitude of sonic dalliances from jazz to progressive rock, all of which reveal themselves slowly over the course of the album. It’s one hell of a ride.
Released via Finisterian Dead End, ‘Into the light’ is an eight track ride through the musical wilderness that exists somewhere behind Steven Wilson, mastodon, The Ocean and Gojira. It opens with the purifying violence of ‘toward the light’, a tense exercise in multi-faceted metal dynamics that appears hazily out of the sound of breaking waves. It’s gloriously brutal stuff built around tightly wound guitar riffs that are kept rigidly in check by martial percussion. Unwilling to make it too easy, the track ducks and weaves until it suddenly slips into a melody that wouldn’t sound out of place on an OSI record, even finding time for a stately guitar solo in the vein of Pink Floyd. ‘Call my name’ brings the metal back, and now that you’ve adjusted to the band’s forbidding assault, you have a moment to appreciate the spacious production work of Maxime Singer, Simon Saint-Georges and Gabriel Junod (the latter two being members of the band) which presents the band’s increasingly interesting sonic tapestries with remarkable clarity. The song, as with its forbear, devolves from furious metal, but this time the band head into warm tribal territory (think Sepultura at their most experimental, or Max’s on-going ‘soulfly’ series) before segueing confidently back into their complex math metal for the song’s conclusion although not without taking a brief tourist trip into the world of jazz, just to keep you on your toes. The riffs are huge, the sense of adventure and excitement more so, and by the end of the second track the band have already hit remarkable heights of invention. ‘Reborn’ opens on a gentle note, subtle and atmospheric music, overlaid with the sound of wildlife, before slowly building into a melodic number that ebbs and flows over the course of its eight minute run time. Hints of Opeth, Porcupine tree and Tool are all present here, whilst beautifully phrased vocal harmonies add yet another layer to the band’s already deep sound. Even as the song tips increasingly into heavier territory, the overall feeling here is of a band indulging their progressive tendencies with remarkable effect.
Having kicked off the record with four monster-length tracks, ‘elevate’ is rather more concise at three minutes in length and it offers a respite from the monumental riffs found elsewhere, the band even introducing a touch of flute, the sultry tones of which drifting seductively across the jazzy backdrop provided by the band. Eerie, intriguing and yet slightly sinister, it’s a beautiful track that leads the listener inexorably towards ‘tribal warming’, a brutal devolution of what has gone before, the band recalling the furious art-metal of Amebix’s latest outing as they churn and grind out their complex rhythms and coruscating guitar patterns. ‘One’ is a lengthy exercise in tension and dynamics, drawing upon a mixture of porcupine tree, Alice in chains and soundgarden, the result being a bass-led mix of gnarled, sludgy guitars, carefully harmonised vocals, elegant solos and unnerving darkness all bought together in one brilliantly realised song that has all the band’s remarkable strengths to the fore. ‘The voice of creation’ opens gently but it takes all but a moment for the brutality of birth to come screaming from the void, the band unleashing a tidal wave of bloody destruction via roared vocals and devastating guitars before drifting across the plains of their imagination into a place where The Ocean play Swans covers with the Melvins. It sounds entirely wonderful, and music fans, unfettered by pointless genre specifications will fall instantly in love with the bands seemingly magical ability to intertwine melody and power with such aplomb. The album closes with ‘third mind’ a song that sees the band delve deep into territory previously inhabited only by Neurosis and Bee and Flower, the introduction a strangely countrified take on ethereal post-rock psychosis, although as is to be expected, the band don’t leave the listener without at least a few shock and awe moments along the path.
There is no question, Mantra are the sort of band SonicAbuse truly loves. The album is bold, adventurous and exquisitely put together. The production is remarkably tight, sounding a million dollars even if the real figure was nowhere near, and the musicianship and song-writing is nothing short of astounding. A must for adventurous metal fans, this is intelligent, wide-ranging and, at times, catastrophically heavy music that explores the wonderfully open landscape that metal and progressive music inhabits in this modern age. It is a brilliant work that deserves to be heard far and wide and which demands a place in any true music fan’s collection.
Did we get it right? See for yourself:
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