Earlier this year, UK-based band, Conjurer released their debut album, displaying a staggering amount of different influences mixed together to create something amazing and new. Germany based, two-piece band Mantar have done just that as well with their sophomore release, The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze (Nuclear Blast).

However, unlike the influence from more prog metal bands like Mastodon and Opeth in Mire (Holy Roar), Mantar have brought together a variety of different worlds that can be shown throughout the album with elements of Metallica, Motörhead and Machine Head combined with animalistic vocals that sound like they belong in a black metal band. The overall effect of this creates a raw, vicious sound; even though there are only 2 members of the band, the sound that they’ve produced is larger than some fully manned bands.Continue reading →