Artist: Ars Manifestia
Album: The Red Behind
Type: Album
Label: Blackseed Productions
With a band name like Ars Manifestia and an album called ‘The Red Behind’, I was sorely tempted to pack this review full of arse-related gags. Of course, anyone that knows me knows that I’d never stoop so low. Starting out in Italy but now relocating to the true birthplace of the 2nd wave of black metal Norway, sole member Harmful has finally released his second opus upon unsuspecting listeners, 2 years after his generally well received debut.
The first thing I noticed upon the initial playback of this album was it’s occasional similarity to the cream of the early Norwegian scene, albeit a far more outlandish and epic version than your embryonic Satyricons and Enslaveds (the album itself comes close to filling the CD at just over 70 minutes with only 7 tracks). Although icy and unforgiving, the riffs have a nice chiming, repetitive nature to them which only becomes apparent upon multiple listens (at first, I felt they were a tad monotonous, until their true beauty seeps into your subconscious around the 3rd or 4th sitting, when the little nuances and intricacies begin to shine through). With most of the tracks bordering on the ten minute mark (with the final track actually being double that), it’s a bit of a no brainer that this would be utter crap without that je ne sais quoi that keeps your interest from waning in the riff department, but this album certainly manages to hold attention with relative ease.
Reading the band’s Myspace page, it seems that Harmful’s statement that “Behind Ars Manifestia is the desire to damage, stamp on, violate and rape people's vital force in the effort to bring them to suicide” would make you think that this project is a vehicle for depressive black metal. In my opinion, it’s about as far from that as you can get. In fact, it’s quite the opposite - every time I’ve played this I’ve received quite an uplifting feeling from the album, albeit with a frosty, cold tinge that is frozen into its hypothermic backbone.
All in all, Ars Manifestia aren’t ‘bottom’ feeders. They’ve creating a ‘spanking’ album of un-w’hole’some black metal which should prevent even the ‘cheek’-iest from attempting to make them the ‘butt’ of jokes. Fnar. BUMS.
http://www.myspace.com/harmful666
http://www.blackseedprod.com/
Lars Christiansen
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