London’s Manfected come stumbling out the blocks with a rather unfortunate name that sounds as much like a disease of the penis as it does a progressive death metal band. Their debut album, ‘Illimitable’ has been generating the odd murmurs of approval from those who know, so I thought I should check them out. Knowing little more about them than their being practitioners of the progressive death style, I was still none the wiser, as the interpretation of progressive death can vary wildly from flat out Mastodon worship, to flat out Opeth worship to guttural growls over fret exercises. It doesn’t take long to work out here that Mastodon are the influence here, or that they fall a little short of the mark.
Once you’ve cleared the obligatory time wasting intro track that fails to set an atmosphere or have any particular relevance, the music itself is competently performed, although with any band with pretentions on progressive death, that is the very least you would expect. The guitars are tight and well performed by Triskelion and AdVentus, but there are a few issues with the music. The drums are definitely a problem. Whilst they sound lightning fast and tight, and I suspect triggered; the sound, in particular from the kick drum, very nearly ruins the whole album. For the majority of the album, it sounds less like Kiru is actually playing a drum kit and more like he is battering a number of pillows rhythmically. It really is a soft, muted sound and at times it gets swallowed in the mix.
The other issue that affects this album badly is singer Oly. Whilst his death voice is by no means terrible, it lacks power, charisma and conviction, sounding as he does like a million and one other deathcore singers. His death voice is flawless however, when compared with his clean vocals. His voice is so thin and weedy; it actually made me reach for the skip button on more than one occasion, with a sound that is far more suited to one of those sensitive emo bands where he could sing about why nice girls always hate him. It’s not all negative though, for whilst musically they do not quite reach the lofty technical heights which they seem to be aiming for, there’s a lot of talent at work here, and their songwriting and composition skills belie the fact that they have only been a band (in this incarnation) for 2 years. The two standout tracks for me would be the Opeth and Mastodon tinged ‘Obsessions’, and the epic ‘The Suffering’, nasty clean vocal part notwithstanding.
Manfected have more going for them than a lot of bands of this ilk. The base talent is definitely there, it just needs honing, and if they could just sort out the vocals and the world’s softest drums, then they could have a very bright future. Whilst they are not the finished item yet, they do show promise. ‘Illimitable’ is worth a listen, but at the moment, not much more than that.
http://www.myspace.com/manfected
Lee Kimber
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