Manntis
Sleep In Your Grave
7.4
Working within a genre so flooded it's beginning to make the Asian Tsunami of last December jealous, Battle for Ozzfest product Manntis tightens Metalcore's loose screws and churns out a scorcher of an album whose individual songs pass the three minute mark only twice. If nothing else, this five-piece understands both the demands of its black-hoodie wearing, lip pierced 'core fiends and its more cynical traditional heavy metal torch-bearers. Belonging more to the latter and less to the former, I rid my ears of every wax-stained corner of Metalcore stereotypes I could find with an already dirtied Q-tip and dove into Sleep in Your Grave, their debut album now being released by Century Media, with only the slightest of hesitation. Century Media cites the band's influences as being Meshuggah, Pantera, and Killswitch Engage, but what I heard most from Manntis was a less technically-proficient and perhaps more party oriented hybrid of Shadows Fall and Lamb of God. Album opener "Axe of Redemption" prepares the listener for 28 minutes and 40 seconds of what is clearly a guitar showcase of an album. Devil horns and head slicing air like the truest of 'bangers, I found myself enjoying the pummeling drone of rhythm guitarist Jerry "Manimal" and the impressively proficient clean lead work by Adair Cobley. Manntis take its craft only as seriously as it's called for, given its intended audience. Its aim isn't to craft the next Symbolic or Necroticism. With anthemic, fist pump inducing tracks like "Shades of Hatred" and "Resist and Overcome," both of which barely cross the two minute finish line before ending in a frenzy that leaves the listener with a what the fuck expression, Sleep in Your Grave is meant to be digested with a couple Bud Lights in the system and the expectation that one won't be overcritical of a piece intended to be your excuse to party. Those with Q-tips too small to rid yourselves of wax built-up through previous battles with Atreyu and As I Lay Dying will no doubt find an excess of things to hate about this release; it's brainless, riff-laden 'core accompanied by a vocalist, Jake Daniels, with short hair and tattoos and only a reasonably talented drummer who tries his damnedest to keep up with everyone else. On top of that, the band got its start on a program devised and aired by MTV. What's not to hate, right? Well, if you, like me, manage to overcome your established tradition of bashing everything that can't be immediately described as technically dazzling, then what you'll find with Manntis' debut is an album you'll turn to for innocent fun while in your car or at home, while working on your car, when you'll be least likely to arrive with negative baggage.
