HOW THE WORLD CAME TO AN END

How the World Came to an End is the third full-length studio album by Norwegian progressive rock/ metal act Manes. Manes started their career as a full- fledged black metal act and recorded three demos ( Maanens Natt (1993), Ned I Stillheten (1994) and Til Kongens Grav De Døde Vandrer (1995)) and one full-length studio album called Under ein Blodraud Maane (1999) in that style. Manes second full-length studio album Vilosophe (2003) was an alltogether different beast though. Gone were the black metal style and in came a dark electronic/ progressive rock/ metal style that I´m personally very fond of. An extremely well-crafted and intriguing album that one.

The music style on How the World Came to an End takes Manes newfound electronic rock/ metal music in an even more electronic/ ambient direction and the metal elements are almost gone from the music now. The vocals are predominantly in ordinary clean singing style but as a new thing in Manes musical universe there´s rap style vocals on the album too. These are performed in both French and in English. The concept is still pretty dark which should be no surprise given the title of the album. The production is excellent. Layers upon layers of sounds, vocals and synths. The closest reference are bands like OSI ( the most ambient and mellow tracks) and especially Chroma Key but a band like Ulver also comes to mind.

How the World Came to an End is not really what I expected from Manes after the excellent Vilosophe but it is a good album in its own right. I´m just not as thrilled about this album as I was about Vilosophe. First of all the metal elements which was the link to their past are almost completely gone and then there´s the rap vocals which I have a hard time enjoying. The rap vocals fortunately only appear on occasion though and don´t ruin my experience completely. I find How the World Came to an End to be an interesting album but not really suiting my taste and a 3 star rating is deserved. I hope they get back on track with their next album and remember where they originally came from ( read: bring back those metal elements and drop the rap vocals).