Manatark "Chaos Engine" CD

Jewel case with clear tray, 16-page booklet including lyrics.

I think I've listened to this album something like five times and I still can't really remember anything about it apart from the cover. Throw this on the pile of 'not BAD bad, but there's no reason to listen to this'- Manatark isn't really doing anything new or ambitious with 'Chaos Engine', and they're not playing an old style particularly well. I guess this band's gimmick is that they're a black metal band desperately trying to position themselves as something other than a black metal band, when in actuality they're no more progressive than Somrak. Oh well.

Actually, the Somrak/Avsky comparison is a fairly apt one; this really feels a lot like rock at times, since the band loves nothing more than to break away from the blasts and double bass for some one-two drumming and strummed or arpeggiated guitarwork. I guess the defining element of this is a substantial influence from Opeth- not so much in style, exactly, but in the principle that every song should be broken up into as many incongruent passages as possible. I guess this is supposed to make the music 'progressive', but in actuality the band is just playing the same conventional black metal stuff as everyone else, just with different rhythms and tempos. Look at 'Four Walls'- Mantark is convinced that some more open-ended, Opethy drumming is going to make their conventional black metal arpeggios something other than what they are. It never actually works but god bless 'em they keep trying.

Moreover, the black metal itself is pretty boring. Most of the riffs are just Swedish black metal riffs with a little bit more textural complexity going on (which I'll give them credit for), but the added technicality doesn't do anything for the songwriting itself. Most of the riffs come off as disposable, and with how the band likes to chop up their song structures, none of the riffs are ever given a chance to truly lead into others and go anywhere. I'm not asking for a sweeping musical expression; just a little bit of melodic development throughout a song would be nice! Unfortunately, since Manatark confuses progression with how many different passages you can have in a single song, you never get that chance, which sucks because there's some moments (like the main tremolo riff of 'We Stole Your Death') where it seems like there's something genuinely interesting going on. Too bad we'll only ever get to hear the very beginning of it.

Overall this just kind of sucks and isn't really worth anyone's time. I'm not going to say that Manatark couldn't eventually make a good album- I'm saying that I'm not going to sit on my hands waiting for them to.

Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=bGKt_Tx88hI&t=861s