Norway’s Mantric are back with their third album, False Negative – and I have to say they have definitely made a new fan in your not so humble interlocutor…
Formed from the wreckage of prog rockers Extol, the band ply a very impressive trade indeed, flitting from mood to mood as each song demands; So much so that it really is difficult to give them a simple, defining descriptor overall. At times they lay on the riffs and screams like a lost son of Nirvana, at others they shimmer and spangle like a beguiling cross between a much more aggressive A-ha and The Police. This is music that demands the full concentration of the listener, but definitely rewards that concentration with a cornucopia of delicious sounds and sonic vistas.
The Towering Mountain is a quite superb example of where everything comes together best, rattling along on the back of some thrillingly insistent bass and overloaded guitar violence, whilst closer Starmonger is where the band probably finds itself deserving the ‘progressive’ tag the most. Somewhere in between lies the rest of the album, simmering away before the intermittent boilovers the constitute the album’s high points. If it sounds like I’m not giving much away in describing this record, then I’m truly sorry; it’s not often these days that an album truly defies description and yet, with False Negative, Mantric have produced just such a thing. You’ll just have to listen to it yourselves…
Suffice to say – if you enjoy any of the bands I’ve mentioned (and I’ll throw in a few other names at this point – Hüsker Dü, Therapy? and Muse), then you’ll love what Mantric have come up with on False Negative. And let’s face it, we’ve all got a bit more time on our hands these days to get involved with a truly immersive album, right? So get involved!
False Negative is out on April 24th.
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