Manes
How The World Came To An End

May 2007
Released: 2007, Candlelight
Rating: 1.5/5
Reviewer: J. Campbell

This album is NOT metal. Let this be known right away. Apparently, at one point in time, Manes were a black metal band, but now they’ve jumped on the avant-garde bandwagon and turned their focus to making self-indulgent, pseudo-artistic drivel.



I’ll keep this short.



Similar to Thee Maldoror Kollective’s oddball release from earlier this year, HOW THE WORLD CAME TO AN END plays like a twisted movie soundtrack that’s been poured out of a multi-genre blender. At its high points, it shares similarities to Angelo Badalamenti’s pieces for the film Lost Highway; creepy and atmospheric. The low points? Think the Gorillaz’ trip-hop tomfoolery combined with Radiohead worship. To person who has actually heard true hip-hop, these excursions are laughable. To a metalhead, they are vomit-inducing.



To top it all off, the whole thing is littered with “artsy” background noises like typewriter thwacks and falling rain, and…ah, fuck it. This album is nearly worthless (though it’s still better than THE HINDERERS). It’s obvious that these guys have some type of skill, but they have essentially poured years of their life into what amounts to a forgettable novelty. This thing is weird for the sake of being weird, diverse for the sake of being diverse…irritatingly spastic for the sake of “art”. The point of HOW THE WORLD CAME TO AN END has possibly gone completely over my head, but more than likely, it’s lodged in the band members' asses.



Mind-boggling.