8 DEADLY SINS

8 DEADLY SINS is concept album about a man lying in his death bed and remembering the positive and negative things he has done in his life. The sound is usual for Manticora - speed power metal with some Iron Maiden influences. Differently from early works, the band left their Iron Maiden imitations in their past ( what doesn't means that you wouldn't hear still many of Maiden-ish moments on this album).

But another element they are mixing in their sound now is power metal borrowed from Helloween. Just add faster rhythm, trashy Metallica moments to this Scandinavian metal mix, and you can perfectly imagine, what this album is alike.

To be honest, musicians all are competent, so the main problem there is lack of originality.

And if for collectors of all possible heavy metal music on the world this album could be just regular average victim, for those searching for style and originality this work is just another heavy metal album. You choose.

P.S. This band doesn't play keyboards based prog metal as stated in bio. It will be strange for quartet of two guitars,bass and drums, isn't it?

Manticora's 8 Deadly Sins is part of that weird metal subgenre of "hospital bed concept albums" - you know, the sort where the protagonist spends the entire piece lying in a hospital bed injured or comatose or dying or all three and wander about in their memories. Queensryche might be the originators, Ayreon have done it too, and I'm pretty sure there's other examples I'm forgetting.

Anyway, our protagonist this time around seems to have lived a pretty mean life, because he's contemplating his sins - and given that at least one of the songs is overtly themed around the Holocaust, they seem to be pretty harsh ones at that. Like a great many rock operas, the lyrics end up so vague that you're more or less tasked with working out the story for yourself, but it's not really necessary to enjoy the album, which is an enjoyable slice of dark, angsty power metal.

Power metal isn't typically the metal subgenre you think of when it comes to expressing guilt and angst, but Manticora manage to pull it off, eschewing the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy and cheesy optimism of much power metal to produce an album where, even though I don't understand the story very well, nonetheless has a haunting atmosphere that makes it worth a try, even if you aren't usually a power metal listener. I don't think it's quite on the level of the very capable Safe, but it's good enough in its own way.