Mantar of course means half man/half centaur. Don’t try to add it up, just trust me. Your guess is as good as mine which member of the duo represents each part, but they’ve been slitting throats with their blackened sludge/punk metal hybrid for over a decade. Since their official debut, Death by Burning in 2014, there’s been an album almost every two years. Not this time, though.

Does that mean the band took their time and did something completely different? No. Why mess with a potent, working formula? It’s made very clear with a short opening in “Absolute Ghost,” which is a bludgeoning from the beginning to its brief end that you’re getting what you expected when you put on the new Mantar.

We’re going to jump around a bit here, so try to keep up, sluts. Most of the songs are around the two-minute mark, and they do sound similar. An exception to this rule is “Halsgericht,” which is German for “throat court,” according to Google Translate. So, that’s something. There is a brief intro and for the most part, the song follows the template of a solid backbeat, throat-shredding vocals, and almost pun riffing. The difference is the chorus riff, which is a little slower and melodic. With around thirty seconds left, it almost sounds like a different song has started, but only for a moment.

The closer, “Cosmic Abortion,” is over four minutes as well, evoking an almost White Zombie riff. Instead that morphs into dissonant chords with a chorus of “kill, destroy, fuck shit up.” It is pure fury until just the last few moments, where it just kind of fittingly ends. While that may end the album, I’m not yet finished.

I want to backtrack a little to “Church of Suck.” It’s around two minutes, as usual, so not much to report. With bass and the steady backbeat carrying the song, this sounds more punk than anything else on the record. I’m no punk, though so I’ll have to ask one of my best friends who had a massive red mohawk when we met several years ago.

I admit I am slightly disappointed, which is my fault. I knew what I would be getting, decided to ignore my instinct, and hoped for something radically different. While this is so far the only Mantar album I have not purchased, I have listened to it many times. I’d love to see them live if they were to ever travel to the United States, which I honestly couldn’t blame them if they didn’t, considering their home country went through an awful period (putting it very mildly) much like one to where we seem to be heading. The album title Post Apocalyptic Depression will rarely be more appropriate as it seems Mantar has traveled into the immediate future and is reporting the findings.

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