Manntis - Sleep in Your Grave
Century Media Records - CD 77535-2 - October 17th, 2005
by Stuart Norman
With such a degree of mainstream media exposure behind them, Manntis already have both a reputation to live up to and a premature level of expectation to fulfil with their debut release Sleep in your Grave. Big breaks sometimes come with a price, and whereas Manntis clearly have the musical ability to live with the big time, its by no means clear that they have the winning formula to stay the distance. Not Yet.
Axe of Redemption kicks things off in a reasonably predictable way, riffage youll swear to recognise laid out into a recognisable formula. Initially you think you know what the next half-hour will sound like. But by the time Shades of Hatred is half way through, it will have become apparent that Manntis havent simply offered up a slab of standard-issue metalcore. With a far more classic-metal feel from the off, Shades is already more dynamic in structure and holding a slightly more convincing sense of melody. Manntis, despite a fair smattering of clichés, are at least willing to mix it up a bit.
The necessary variety Manntis must employ is greatly due to the sheer strength and breadth of quality found in European metal in recent years. Even bands from across the Atlantic will have to reflect this in order to achieve some kind of mainstream success. As with so many bands of this ilk, you know damn well that theres an Arch Enemy album or two in these guys CD collections, and without doubt some At the Gates too. All necessary requirements if you want to get the kids to kick each others faces in. Throw in a few beatdowns and you there you have it. Unsurprisingly then, guitar driven melodies are a regular feature on Sleep in your Grave, but in this case they appear only sporadically, and without ever giving any of the tracks themselves a real melodic identity. This inability to take an initially decent theme and develop it into a song is particularly apparent throughout. Reflections of You and New Breed of Life in particular suffer where a few vocal melodies make almost apologetic appearances. It sounds almost as if Manntis have made a half-hearted attempt to incorporate some kind of Nu-metal crossover in the interest of wider appeal. It never quite happens.
Having imposed a 210 second limit on all of their songs, with most coming in at the two minute mark, most tracks audibly struggle to reach any sort of climax. True, this is a limit of the genre itself, but one that Manntis song-writing abilities havent overcome yet.
Having said all this, there is a wealth of ideas throughout Sleep in your Grave that make it interesting throughout, both in texture and content, if not always entirely satisfying. And by the time it reaches Weathered Soul the album has finally found the anthem it has been looking for from the start; well, just about. Clearly the standout track, it has the kind of drama and big chorus feel, as well as the overall momentum that Manntis need to be producing more consistently. More concise and engaging, along with the title track Sleep in Your Grave itself, it shows that Manntis have the songs in them to record a very decent album. It suggests that at best, they can offer up an album to give a new angle to a genre in danger of becoming too stagnant to produce genuinely original material. Ironic, since these are the tracks to draw more noticeably on their earlier influences; Pantera in particular come to mind. These sit slightly uncomfortably next to the shades of early Machine Head (and not of their best moments) that litter the earlier part of the album. I do wonder why they laid the tracks out in such a way that you can get so far through them before reaching its strongest moments!
You are likely to hear perhaps a couple of these tracks make it onto the playlist of the major metal clubs and venues around then. There is meat on the metalcore bone if you are patient enough with Sleep in your Grave. You neednt be too patient though, because one of them certainly wont be the mildly pleasant if unspectacular and horribly titled The End Where it Begins acoustic track. Because yes, thats right, its at the end of the album. Well done guys. Genius.
Ok theres no need to be sarcastic, but Manntis do set themselves up for it a little too often. If you can resist having an easy jibe, this brief 28 minutes or so is entirely listenable thanks to largely competent performances. The only exceptions are a few too many horrible pinch harmonics and the occasionally scratchy guitar playing. It even reaches exciting when the whole unit clicks. As yet though for Manntis, with 'Sleep in Your Grave' this doesnt happen quite often enough.
5.5/10
Official Manntis Website
Official Century Media Records Website
Century Media Records - CD 77535-2 - October 17th, 2005
by Stuart Norman
With such a degree of mainstream media exposure behind them, Manntis already have both a reputation to live up to and a premature level of expectation to fulfil with their debut release Sleep in your Grave. Big breaks sometimes come with a price, and whereas Manntis clearly have the musical ability to live with the big time, its by no means clear that they have the winning formula to stay the distance. Not Yet.
Axe of Redemption kicks things off in a reasonably predictable way, riffage youll swear to recognise laid out into a recognisable formula. Initially you think you know what the next half-hour will sound like. But by the time Shades of Hatred is half way through, it will have become apparent that Manntis havent simply offered up a slab of standard-issue metalcore. With a far more classic-metal feel from the off, Shades is already more dynamic in structure and holding a slightly more convincing sense of melody. Manntis, despite a fair smattering of clichés, are at least willing to mix it up a bit.
The necessary variety Manntis must employ is greatly due to the sheer strength and breadth of quality found in European metal in recent years. Even bands from across the Atlantic will have to reflect this in order to achieve some kind of mainstream success. As with so many bands of this ilk, you know damn well that theres an Arch Enemy album or two in these guys CD collections, and without doubt some At the Gates too. All necessary requirements if you want to get the kids to kick each others faces in. Throw in a few beatdowns and you there you have it. Unsurprisingly then, guitar driven melodies are a regular feature on Sleep in your Grave, but in this case they appear only sporadically, and without ever giving any of the tracks themselves a real melodic identity. This inability to take an initially decent theme and develop it into a song is particularly apparent throughout. Reflections of You and New Breed of Life in particular suffer where a few vocal melodies make almost apologetic appearances. It sounds almost as if Manntis have made a half-hearted attempt to incorporate some kind of Nu-metal crossover in the interest of wider appeal. It never quite happens.
Having imposed a 210 second limit on all of their songs, with most coming in at the two minute mark, most tracks audibly struggle to reach any sort of climax. True, this is a limit of the genre itself, but one that Manntis song-writing abilities havent overcome yet.
Having said all this, there is a wealth of ideas throughout Sleep in your Grave that make it interesting throughout, both in texture and content, if not always entirely satisfying. And by the time it reaches Weathered Soul the album has finally found the anthem it has been looking for from the start; well, just about. Clearly the standout track, it has the kind of drama and big chorus feel, as well as the overall momentum that Manntis need to be producing more consistently. More concise and engaging, along with the title track Sleep in Your Grave itself, it shows that Manntis have the songs in them to record a very decent album. It suggests that at best, they can offer up an album to give a new angle to a genre in danger of becoming too stagnant to produce genuinely original material. Ironic, since these are the tracks to draw more noticeably on their earlier influences; Pantera in particular come to mind. These sit slightly uncomfortably next to the shades of early Machine Head (and not of their best moments) that litter the earlier part of the album. I do wonder why they laid the tracks out in such a way that you can get so far through them before reaching its strongest moments!
You are likely to hear perhaps a couple of these tracks make it onto the playlist of the major metal clubs and venues around then. There is meat on the metalcore bone if you are patient enough with Sleep in your Grave. You neednt be too patient though, because one of them certainly wont be the mildly pleasant if unspectacular and horribly titled The End Where it Begins acoustic track. Because yes, thats right, its at the end of the album. Well done guys. Genius.
Ok theres no need to be sarcastic, but Manntis do set themselves up for it a little too often. If you can resist having an easy jibe, this brief 28 minutes or so is entirely listenable thanks to largely competent performances. The only exceptions are a few too many horrible pinch harmonics and the occasionally scratchy guitar playing. It even reaches exciting when the whole unit clicks. As yet though for Manntis, with 'Sleep in Your Grave' this doesnt happen quite often enough.
5.5/10
Official Manntis Website
Official Century Media Records Website
