MANTICORA – To Kill To Live To Kill

MANTICORA - To Kill To Live To Kill
  • 8.5/10
    MANTICORA - To Kill To Live To Kill - 8.5/10
8.5/10

Summary

Vicisolum Records
Release date: August 3, 2018

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8/10 (1 vote)

There’s nothing wrong with a little ambition in the world of Heavy Metal, a genre which often punishes artists that play it safe. Danish masters Manticora have displayed no shortage of ambition in their twenty year career, tackling such projects as a sonic retelling of Dan Simmons’ epic novel Hyperion with their album of the same name, and delivering a two volume concept album, with volumes released over a two-year period in 2006 and 2007 entitled The Black Circus. With To Kill To Live To Kill, their eighth release and their first in eight years, they intend to do the same. As if multi-volume concepts and re-imaginings of genius literary works wasn’t enough, singer Lars Larsen’s ambitions extend into additional art forms beyond music; To Kill To Live To Kill is based on a novel of the same name Larsen wrote and successfully kick started.

Ambition is one thing, but talent, execution and performance are another—many projects laden with ambition become so bloated with excess and overreach as to never attain their stated goals, and Larsen’s status as a multi-threat artist doesn’t guarantee that To Kill To Live To Kill is going to be any fun to listen to. But…it is. In a big way; epic in scope and with masterful production from producer Jacob Hansen (Volbeat), the album features a variety of song structures including absolutely shredding instrumentals in “The Devil In Lisbon” and “Humiliation Supreme”. Manticora nails the first volume; one hopes that session drummer Lawrence Dinamarca splits time with his other projects and signs on for volume two; the barrage he unleashes on “Echoes OF A Silent Scream” and the subsequent tracks is a percussive glory.

TUNE INTO METALEXPRESSRADIO.COM at NOON & MIDNIGHT (EST) / 6:00 & 18:00 (CET) TO HEAR THE BEST TRACKS FROM THIS UPCOMING RELEASE!!!

Author

  • Daniel Waters

    Daniel was a reviewer here at Metal Express Radio. Iron Maiden’s Piece Of Mind wasn’t the first Metal album he owned, but it was the one that lifted the lid off his soul when he received the record as a gift on his 15th birthday. He's been a Metal fan ever since. He's probably best known as the author of various Young Adult novels such as the Generation Dead series and the ghost story Break My Heart 1,000 Times, now also a major motion picture entitled I Still See You, starring Bella Thorne. Writing and music, especially Heavy Metal music, has always been inextricably linked in his mind and career. His first paid gig doing any type of writing was for Cemetery Dance, where he wrote a horror-themed music column called Dead Beats, and when he was writing the first Generation Dead novel he had a ritual where he started his writing day with a Metal playlist that kicked off with “Crushing Belial” by Shadows Fall.

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2 Comments

  1. Nice review, just one remark: Manticora are of course Danish masters (you probably meant that bur wrote Dutch)

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