Album Review: Mantar – Pain Is Forever and This Is the End
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
Mantar are one of those two pieces who are louder and more intensive than bands with more than double the number of members. Now on their fourth full length album, the German blackened sludge force of nature see a streamlining and refining of their sound but without losing any of the potency which has made them a household name amongst sludge loving maniacs.
Pain Is Forever And This Is The End is ten songs spread across forty minutes of brazen rock and roll attitude mixed with filthy depraved riffage and an ugly blackened grit (all in the best possible way of course). Album opener Egoisto sets the scene with it’s simplistic black ‘n’ roll riff which is just glorious filth and much the same can be said for Grim Reaping which incorporates a nasty blackened feel to it though the blackened leanings come to the fore in Horder which is brilliantly nasty. The band have a knack of sounding gnarly as hell but with hooky songwriting chops as evident in songs such as Orbital Pus, Piss Ritual and Walking Corpse.
As mentioned earlier, Mantar make one hell of a racket for a two piece and the performances from both Hanno (vocals and guitars) and Erinc (drums and vocals) are excellent throughout. Mantar still retain their original sludge metal sound from their beginnings but there has been a blackened edge steadily creeping in on subsequent releases but it is on Pain Is Forever And This Is The End where the blackened sludge tag really comes to the fore. This album is a great mix of punked up sludge riffs, raucous rock and roll and black metal filth. If you want music which is as gnarly as it is catchy then this is very much recommended. I always saw Ode To The Flame as the high point for Mantar but this album might very much dethrone it.
