Review Summary: "Lord of Light, guide us!"
At the entrance to a street in Bremen, Germany called Böttcherstraße, hangs a bronze sculpture called
Der Lichbringer (The Lightbringer), designed by Bernhard Hoetger. It was designed with an intention to glorify the victory of The Third Reich over the powers of darkness in 1936. Hitler, however, dismissed the piece, labelling it racist and a divergent view of culture. Ludwig Roselius, the man who supervised the project, was thus rejected twice into the National Socialism Party because Hitler expressively listed his project as an example of degenerate art. To put it simply, one of the evillest men in the world found this artwork to be too controversial.
Album artwork is often overlooked in music despite the opportunity it has to show people what kind of mood to expect before they’ve even listened to anything. Doubtless, Mantar, a duo from Germany, has dedicated
Der Lichbringer as the artwork for their third album purely to raise awareness to its physical forgotten existence and nothing more. However, considering the sculpture’s historic dismissal, one could expect nothing short of unabashed malevolence to seep out of this album.
In accordance with Mantar’s intent in lacing a fiery theme into their music, particularly their album titles,
“The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze” is a suitably incendiary album. Constantly moving and consistently singeing, genres ranging from crust punk to black metal and from death metal to sludge are conjured from the heart of the fire. Songs like ceremonial album opener, “The Knowing”, materialise as the faintest flicker of light while others such as lumbering beast of “Eternal Ruin” or the sinuous riffing of “Teeth of the Sea” feel clenching melting candlewax in your charred hands. During the more extreme incidents scattered across the album, songs such as “Age of Absurd” and “Seek +Forget” explode into unquenchable infernos as Hanno Klänhardt’s searing vocals and vicious stabbing guitars charge alongside Erinc Sakarya’s furious assault of blast beats.
Upon listening to Mantar’s third album, you would not expect this to be the work of only a duo. As mentioned, they’re able to conjure such a diverse soundscape using only a drumkit and guitar, however, what makes that more impressive is how they link that diversity together. Bar from the fiery symbolism, a care-free attitude is the only constant in
“The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze” as if the duo is creating destructive music solely for the sweet release of aggression. Each song never outstays it’s welcome and the song structures are relatively straightforward, free of any fat, which gives Mantar an accessible edge, despite the band’s destructive behaviour. Comparable to a band such as Venom, a song like “Obey the Obscene”, sounds vicious and is completely shrouded in darkness and eeriness, yet, that old-school riffing and anthemic chorus comes into play, making it sound less like a stern black metal song and more like a weirdly catchy soundtrack to riding down a highway at night smashing empty bottles along the way.
Admittedly,
“The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze” does suffer from repetition. Hanno Klänhardt’s vocals only ever alternate between snarling and sneering which wears thin after 45 minutes, however, the array of destructive genres this duo presents is diverse enough to compensate the one-dimensional vocals. Overall, this album sounds like it was created as a way in which to release aggression purely for no other reason than to witness the beautiful damage it causes without a single thought to the consequences it creates. In that respect, it wholeheartedly succeeds.
