A few years ago, on the early afternoon of the Saturday of one of the last editions of the Fortarock festival, I was completely blown away by the German band Mantar. The (just) two band members created a true sonic hell, in which the existence of drummer Erinc seemed to be in constant danger. He and singer Hanno did not focus so much on the audience as towards each other, with the latter foaming at the mouth giving the impression that he could at any moment take a run to jump over the drum kit and smash his drummer with the heavy part of his guitar. Fortunately it didn’t get to that point, because here are the gentlemen with album number five.
A few years before the infamous performance, the band released Ode To The Flame. It was a record that – I just checked – was quite grounded in black metal. However, that is not the only influence of the dynamic duo. For the other roots we don’t have to look very far. In 2020 the guys released Grungetown Hooligans II, a record with – you guessed it – covers of mainly grunge bands (fortunately not the most obvious ones).
The new Post Apocalyptic Depression again lies nicely between both genres. At times the album even sounds somewhat like a dirtier version of Nirvana‘s Bleach. Don’t be alarmed now, because that’s quite a solid and rough record. A band like Fudge Tunnel is also not far away, although they play things a bit louder here. And so we get a kind of noise rock 2.0 with Hanno’s vitriolic vocal chords, which are well past the stage where they could be fixed with a few throat lozenges. This atrophy is irreversible. Because of the vocals the album needs a few spins, because upon first listening there doesn’t seem to be much variation. It doesn’t matter, unscrupulous determination also has its place in music. In the end it turns out not to be too bad, for example in Dogma Down, where the vocals even seem to veer a bit towards Mudhoney. It’s a shame that after writing this paragraph I see that the names mentioned here (except Alex Newport’s band) are also in the promo text. Well, it shows that the influences mentioned by the band can really be heard.
The opening riff of Halsgericht is just as catchy and the second one is even more sticky. So much so that it’s starting to gnaw at my memories. I can’t figure it out and so I just surrender to this track. The frothing at the mouth Wir sind das Halsgericht once again shows that German is an excellent language to express the aggression of metal. The repetition in the verses of Two Choices Of Eternity push that track towards Bleach, but it doesn’t work any less, also because the song goes in a completely different, groovy and rather spacey direction at the end. Keep ’em coming people! That will happen for a while, but with closing track Cosmic Abortion the duo, in a very stubborn way, takes a different path with a solid piece of swing, angular guitar lines and almost Lard-like ‘chants’.
The last song still takes some getting used to, but otherwise Mantar seems to have found its place in the metal universe. With Post Apocalyptic Depression the band presents an extremely focused (35 minutes will get you home) version of itself with a lot of more than great songs. That’s special in a musical world in which standards and formulas sometimes threaten to take the lead. Kudos to these stubborn ones.
Score:
85/100
Label:
Metal Blade Records, 2025
Tracklisting:
- Absolute Ghost
- Rex Perverso
- Principle of Command
- Dogma Down
- Morbid Vocation
- Halsgericht
- Pit of Guilt
- Church of Suck
- Two Choices of Eternity
- Face of Torture
- Axe Death Scenario
- Cosmic Abortion
Line-up:
- Hanno Klänhardt – Guitar, vocals
Erinc Sakarya – Drums
Links: