‘Future forward’ says the PR blurb of American power trio Manic Abraxas, whose new album, Skinformation, does indeed take place in the probably very near and very dystopian future.

But if you’re expecting some sort of Festival of futuristic cyber metal a la Fear Factory, you’re gonna be sorely disappointed by what presents itself to your ears on tracks like, well… all of them actually. Because, rather than try to approximate the sound of metal to come, Manic Abraxas have actually resolutely gone the other way, exhuming some of the best sounds of the past to create something that’s rather more Mad Max than Logan’s Run.

To my ears that’s probably a good thing, and if the thought of a mix of High On Fire, Celtic Frost, Voi Vod and early eighties Motörhead gets your pleasure receptors twitching then MA might well be your fave new band.

It’s not all good – when the band do have a stab at something more mechanical and less organic  Winter’s Mute, I’m looking at you – the wheels drop off pretty quickly and the band end up with a rotten-smelling mashup of Ministry and drunk Karaoke exponents tributing Andrew Eldritch on their hands. It’s not good, as I’m sure you can imagine.

Still, the title track arrives quickly to grind things back onto an even keel and then Cyber Satyr offers perhaps the best distillation of what it is Manic Abraxas are after, sound wise. The only complaint you’ll have about this track is that, at less than three minutes in duration it’s over too quickly, but that’s a small price to pay for such a compact little slice of near perfect dysto-metal.

Closing track Neurogenic Magician is a little more proggish, ends things well and, apart from that little mid-album glitch you’d have to say that, whatever misery the future holds according to the story being told on Skinformation, on the evidence of this record things are actually looking up for what comes next for Manic Abraxas…

https://manicabraxas.bandcamp.com/album/skinformation

Skinformation is out now.