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Artist: Manimal |
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'The
Darkest Room' was originally released in the bands home territory Sweden
in February this year and received almost cult status from the off.
Soon after that the band were signed by AFM Records to release the album
upon the worldwide stage, and what a stunning debut this is! It's
easy to see what the label saw as the bands potential. Manimal
are the pinnacle of the Melodic Metal genre with a huge guitar sound
based around a mountainous rhythm section, plus the snow capped vocal of
Samuel Nyman adding to the splendor of the bands overall sound. The
band consist of Samuel
Nyman on vocals, Henrik Stenroos on guitar, Richard Mentzer on drums and
Pether Menzer on bass, and together they are about to conquer the world
of Melodic Metal with this superb debut release. The
album opens up in spectacular style with ‘Shadows’, a real thumping
metal song that commences with a flurry of big bass and drums before the
fantastic vocals of Nyman take over. Hey people we have a new
vocal star here! His vocals are just made for this genre, as rich
as they are powerful. A mix between Geoff Tate and Ronnie James
Dio. The
intensity of the album continues with the title track ‘The Darkest
Room’. Again a great metal track with Stenroos giving it all his
on the six string, with Nyman’s vocals again powering on through the
track with a melodic ease. It’s
all guns blazing on ‘Living Dead’ and the rhythm section shows it
might on this one, before we venture into something that's a little
modern metal with the outstanding ‘I Am’. If Korn ever did
melodic metal then this is what it would sound like, but with a much
better vocalist in Nyman. 'Ordinary
Man' is a more gentle adaptation on the metal vibe as Nyman shows he can
bring it down as well as power it up on the album, which he does on the
thumping modern metal thrasher ‘Human Nature’, with Stenroos
exploding from the off. One
of my favourite tracks off this superb album has to be ‘Spinegrinder’.
This is old school metal for sure very Priest-esque with just a touch of
Dio in the vocal department. A real heavy metal song for sure,
heads down and horns in the air everyone! The full metal continues with the titanic riff strewn ‘Dreamers And Fools’ before the album closes in epic style with ‘The Life We Lived’ and rounds off a great debut. Manimal are a band that are destined for greatness mark my word, so keep an eye out for these guys as they're gonna be big!
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Tracklisting:
1. Shadows
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