Manes

Manes’s third full-length album suffers from an identity crisis but rather than offering up incoherence and confusion this schism provides a wealth of productive experimentation. Samples, effects and synthesised sounds explain the world’s ending in industrial terms but minutes later it’s rap and the costume changes move on from there — don’t be surprised to hear accents of Tricky and Sting (but not Linkin Park) in this melodic menagerie. Ranging across a wider spectrum of electronics, trip-hop beats, ambient atmosphere or extreme metal intensity, the constant factor is the record’s darkness, which is no surprise if you look at the song names or the album title. Not remotely the Norwegian black metal of Manes’ debut, How the World Came to and End continues along the path set by the record in between, falling amongst the ranks of the diverse to avant-garde musical statements that so many former black metal artists have gone on to create. Manes are one of the more successful in this arena, captivating with a record that promises new revelations with each spin.