Exploding out of some cyberpunk world, Bangor, Maine Hard Rock three-piece Manic Abraxas have got their engines firing at full throttle, and on fourth album, Skinformation (Self-released), a petrol-fueled cloud of dirty Rock n’ Roll and skuzzy, mind-warped Metal sees the trio blasting a hole through the fabric of this universe into dimensions unknown.
Bringing to mind he old Lemmy line: “We are Motörhead and we play Rock & Roll”, here on Skinformation, a fitting mod might be, “We are Manic Abraxas and we play Kiss and Van Halen getting punched in the face by Venom and Celtic Frost in a tar pit”.
Ok, that line needs a little work, but hopefully you get some sense of the fusing of eighties Hard Rock, with grimy Black Metal aggression and petrol fumes that drives Skinformation. And who would you bring in to record such a warped, hard-hitting record that has its middle fingers raised firmly at neat categorisation? You bring in the god of Avant-Garde Metal. Yes, you bring in Today Is The Day maestro Steve Austin (who engineered, mixed and mastered the record at his Austin Enterprise studio).
Opener “Manic Abraxas” sets the tone of the record with blown-out, overdriven guitars, neat drum flourishes and gruff Tom G. Warrior (Celtic Frost) meets Cronos (Venom) vocals.
While the following track “Transcend X” keeps a similar tone and galloping pace, the idiosyncratic production choices are already on show — with a reverb-heavy start and a brief mid-track passage where it’s suddenly as though the music is coming out of an old car radio.
These are the kind of quirky touches that perfectly fit the we’re-playing-eightiess-Hard-Rock/Metal-like-you-recognise-but-we’re-high-on-gasoline-and-acid tone that Manic Abraxis so neatly carve out through the record.
You can recognise the features, like the occasional dual guitar lines (as on the above-mentioned “Transcend X”), or the neanderthal Hard Rock and old-school Black Metal nastiness of “Dark Builder.” But were you expecting the mechanised Prong-stomp of “Winter’s Mute,” with its spooky Goth-Rock guitar lines and ghoulish vocals that sound like they should be delivered upside down in a cape? This writer wasn’t.
And how about that big Rock chorus on closer “Neurogenic Magician”? With the band’s bassist Justin Hamm and guitarist Dallas Seger sharing vocal duties, they really make the most of incorporating these contrasting vocal styles. Put that together with the duo’s shared synth work and drummer Tom Bennett’s powerful stick-wielding prowess, and Skinformation is a mind-warping blast.
Get yourself hitched on to the back of this cyber-punk rocket and rock out.
Buy the album here:
https://manicabraxas.bandcamp.com/album/skinformation
8 / 10
TOM OSMAN
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https://ghostcultmag.com/tag/tom-osman/