Waste not, want not. Heavy bands forget that these days. Most have gone off on long tangents with samples, noise interludes, and jocular forays into soloing and virtuosic musicianship, all looking to attempt to gain meaning or flex on recordings which are already being scooped up by people who just want honesty and passion in their music. More groups should skip the wanking and know when to jump in with both feet, and The Mansters do this in spades.
The Mansters’ eponymously titled first full-length comes in under 11 minutes across 10 tracks. While it does feature the odd sample here and there, the band are also blisteringly-fast and know when to cut in a solo here and there. For the most part, their version of d-beat is another worthy instalment in the long catalogue of Norwegian acts that have weighed in on crust- and d-beat- influenced punk that have wielded so much power in the past and today. The guys belong to the old-school of relying on solos and riffage to convey the intensity, with the classic d-beat style of drumming playing out a constant strain of sweat on the record. They know how to lay down serious riffs and play heavy when it counts the most, and all throughout this they accomplish this in short bursts, with an average of a minute per song, heightening the intensity and brutality of what the band are playing.
What is lacking though, is the type of ethereal, atmospheric guitar work that has separated great d-beat bands from the plain good in the past, an element that I’ve attempted to describe in the past and have only been able to point to songs like “What The Good Book Says” by From Ashes Rise and “Drunk With Power” by Discharge. It’s a type of vibrational frequency that rises above the groundwork being laid out, and the band do accomplish this on “Liar”. But of course, this is the one track on the album that is the shortest, clocking in at a woefully brief 31 seconds. Here’s hoping that the band can channel some more of that atmospheric buzzsaw on their future releases. In the meantime, they have this solid effort that will look to establish them as a band to look out for in the d-beat world.
The Mansters Track Listing:
01. Survival Mode
02. The Battle of TBG
03. Shit City
04. At Least I Tried
05. Parasites
06. Summer of 96
07. Targets
08. Liar
09. One Mistake
10. We Destroyed This Town
Run Time: 10:51
Release Date: November 25, 2016
Check out The Mansters
