Review - Manticore "integrating the extreme"
Album on Warhead
Records
From as unlikely a town to
produce this sort of thing as any other, Wagga Wagga's Manticore do not limit their kicking to the posterior,
nor do they limit their lyric content to the death and gore you might associate
this genre with: these guys are serious musicians in the deadly serious game
called Death/Thrash Metal and seem to be conquering all before them.
Their first release was the
"Ignominious Dominion" demo
tape of which sold an unprecidented 1000 copies.
"Burrowers" followed, on which Mask
and Of No Consequence first appeared
(I've seen Judicial Vomit elsewhere,
too). "integrating the extreme"
is an 8-track album which maintains the Death/Thrash adage that a song has to
contain as many tempo changes as possible, and, wherever they can, exceed 5
minutes duration.
But the major feature of this
album is the intelligent lyrics and, in many cases, melody! Yes - melody: some
of these songs have splashes of colour (to separate the black) rarely seen in
this genre. This is why Manticore have
achieved such fame, adulation and respect is as short a time as anyone else in
this field of extremity.
The press release summed it up
best when it was suggested that this album should be played "at the volume
of universal catastrophe". Do this and you will be "utterly blown
away" - but save some aural senses for a live gig or two! Beyond Eleven!!!