Manimal – The Darkest Room

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The Darkest Room was released in February in their home nation of Sweden, where it quickly rose to #36 on their official charts. Soon after they secured their Worldwide deal with AFM Records for their compact (the polite way of saying “short”) debut, who’s sound could perhaps be best described as the melodic metal meeting of the X-World/5 project and the power/prog mix of Kamelot. Several of the songs at some point, usually the beginning, feature a great, low, grooving riff but end up a little too bright by the time the chorus arrives. Some of the progressive flourishes in otherwise short songs add an extra layer of interest, and although Samuel Nyman’s impressive wail is a little too close to many others in the genre, it sets alight tracks like Human Nature perfectly, and can drop suitably low for ominous passages like the verses of late-period Judas Priest-ish Spinegrinder. Another plus point is that at no point in the album’s 39 minutes to the band drop into ballad territory; the whole album is hard and heavy. A couple more songs, or some longer songs, would have been to the disc’s benefit, but the unique use of limited progressive touches for just seconds at a time is something that gives Manimal an interesting edge over some of their peers.

Written by Andy Lye
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