December 22, 2024

Skylight Webzine

Online since 2000

Folk Metalers Manntra release ‘Heathens’, an overdose of Balkan Metal before unleashing new LP

Overwhelming, brute and full of longing. Mystical goth-rock outfit Manntra has released their new single‘Heathens’. This is the last epic foretaste of their second album ‘Monster Mind Consuming’, set for release on March 26, with lively video directed by Ivan Čolić.

The battle has begun. You are on the battlefield and swords, explosions and screams are all around you. You show up and start fighting. You have no mercy. This is the song’s attitude that frontman Marko M. Sekul and his warriors felt during the songwriting proces. An incredibly powerful song with a captivating riff that really wants to tell a story, ‘Heathens’ is like a storm that rolls over you out of nowhere and from which you cannot escape.

‘Monster Mind Consuming’ is the band’s second English-language album. Here, Croatian folk influences merge with metal and industrial to create a perfectly staged, highly independent musical symbiosis. These songs all have what it takes to reach a new dimension in the dark circus.

Epic, powerful and full of pain, the band has been periodically dropping potent tasters of this epic emotion-filled efolk-metal masterpiece, the latest being for ‘Barren King’, a saga of a leader forever cursed to sail the cold, dark sea, seeking (in vain) a cure for his torments. With nothing but his heart and his faith, the king of outsiders refuses to give up, continuing to forge forward, full of hope in finally experiencing salvation.

Earlier, the band released album singles  ‘Slave’ and ‘Ori Ori’, casting a real thunderstorm of sound, and ‘Voices of The Sea’, with its more traditional bent.

“This is essentially a war album. A battle cry for life. It covers topics like fear, war, being strong and going through a difficult time or heartbreak, being a slave to your fears and being set free in the end. It’s a war against your own insecurities; a war against yourself – and we want you to win this fight! It’s about every single fan and listener of the album. It’s an album by people for people,” says Manntra vocalist Marko M. Sekul, who also produced the album.

“We gave this album our all. We created different songs, tried new things with production and wrote the most intense and darkest songs ever. For me, this is the real face of Manntra – A dark journey through folk, industrial and gothic.”

Written collectively by the band members, this is a harmonious representation of all five members. With their unmistakeabe sound, Manntra has to be experienced live. A little Rammstein and a little Eisbrecher with a Balkan touch in the style of System of a Down. Summoning a storm of excitement, their music has enormous earworm potential.

The ‘Heathens’ single is out now, available across online stores and streaming platforms, including Spotify. ‘Monster Mind Consuming’ will be released on March 26 and can already be pre-ordered on CD and as a limited fanbox.  The band will also be touring later this year with dates indicated at http://www.manntra.hr/#tour

THE PLAYERS
Marko M. Sekul – lead vocals
Maja Kolarić – bass, backing vocals
Andrea Kert – drums
Boris Kolarić – guitar, bagpipe, backing vocals
Marko Purišić – guitar, backing vocals

DISCOGRAPHY
2012 – Horizont (album)
2015 – Venera (album)
2017 – Meridian (album)
2019 – Oyka! (album)

‘Heathens’ https://youtu.be/hKzS8AIMZg0
‘Monster Mind Consuming’ album teaser https://youtu.be/v1lyOnymytw 
‘Barren King’ https://youtu.be/tsvlpZdUejs
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/3euaW0aLQS6JJOiWNTMDAJ
Pre-order album https://nocut.shop/de/manntra-monster-mind-consuming-cd
Pre-order limited fanbox https://nocut.shop/de/manntra-monster-mind-consuming-limitierte-fanbox
‘Slave’ https://youtu.be/MJkzCeQSaFk 
‘Ori Ori’ https://youtu.be/CCPohcJhjLY

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