Manii – Kollaps (2012)

Featuring the original members of Manes, today we have Manii and their crushing ‘slow’ Black Metal that brings us back to the early days of Scandinavian Black Metal but will a depressive/suicidal edge that makes the songs slow and punishing at the same time. Manes is one of those clear examples that shows that too much experimentation and weird shit going on in one release takes things a bit too far and alienates people. With Manii this two man band goes back to the basics with raw screams, piercing riffs and well-crafted drumming.

Thankfully for the older fans of Manes, there is still some hints remaining here and there, but the new band’s focus is more on the atmospheric side of thing. Crafting thick and memorable atmospheres is a craft that seems to escape many of the newer bands but on “Kollaps” this is never the issue. Opening with the martial “Skoddeheim”, the band really sets a very slow and painful tempo, reminding us in times to Shining (Sweden) and Bethlehem. The atmospheric elements are bone-chilling and the overall pace of the track makes the vocals sound even more depraved and powerful.

“Likfugl flaksar” is our favorite track thanks to the very resonant and extremely distorted guitar work.  The whole doom-ish vibe brings the band into the suicidal/depressive BM real and it seems to fit very well for them. If you are thinking you will be disappointed, there are still plenty of ‘faster’ Black Metal passages that help Manii keep their fans on that side of the fence pleased, like on tracks “Ei sjael som sloknar” and “Kadt”. The first one particularly reminded us a bit of the ‘newer’ Burzum.

As the end is nearing, this release does get a bit monotonous and we kind of lost interest. While we like suicidal/depressive Black Metal, there comes a point that if the band does not shake things up, the album gets dull and repetitive, unluckily this happened to Manii in the last three tracks. We don’t mean that the songs are bad, but that they get a bit tiresome since there are not a lot of new things introduced in them and the overall pace of the release allows them to sound very flat. Other that this small detail, we can say that “Kollaps” is actually a pretty good release that will appeal to most BM fans, so you can feel free to go ahead an order this solid album.

Release: September 24th, 2012

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Norway