Mixing technical proficiency with melody, and a kind of darkness that makes this album pretty tricky to pin down, Norway's MANTRIC have released a varied, exciting and interesting album in their latest, "Sin".  Mixing different progressive elements which touch on all sides of that broad spectrum, MANTRIC aren't a group afraid to experiment.

The release begins with the melodious "FaithFaker", a driving track which almost feels like it has a drone running right the way through it, underneath changing guitar parts which sound like they take influences from a range of eastern music before changing into a fairly classic Heavy Metal riff.

"Arrogance Vs. Anxiety" shows off the polarity of influences that MANTRIC call upon, really jumping from clean singing, atmospheric harmonies and luscious chords, to crushing heaviness and screaming, showing off an anger that lies in wait just below the surface of many of the tracks "Die Old" has an almost cheerful bounce to it, while the opening banjo strains of "Maranatha" are incredibly creepy, and preclude the rest of the song which is a slow, dark, incredibly disconcerting
track that feels almost heartless.

While these different styles pretty much sum up the overall sound of the album, the sheer breadth of what MANTRIC are trying to achieve, and the range of people that they are trying to draw in from one song to the next creates an album full of confusion which, when taken as a whole, has very little consistency. The way that the atmosphere and style bounces round, it feels less like a group trying to stretch their musical wings, and more like a very confused group of guys who are writing a load of different songs and shoving them together (The songs aren't bad per se, but taken as a whole, "Sin"doesn't feel like a coherent whole).

Overall, there is a lot of good stuff on the album- depending on what kind of Prog you like, then there will be a track suiting your taste. Just don't expect all of the songs to be.

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