Drown opens the album with mysterious choir voices. After a few seconds the electric guitar kicks in and a bit later the head banging starts. Lead singer Sven Herssens starts with a half whispering, half speaking voice. Then the screams kick in and this song proves to be a great opener. As well for their CD as for the release show. The low strums at the end of the song really just give it that much extra feeling.

Game Over is a play between clean vocals and scream vocals. It switches almost instantly. All of that is done by the same singer. Simply amazing. An awesome track to play as loud as you can. It’s definitely an absolute banger. Looking back, I can definitely see why Iris Goessens joined Mantah when they played this song for the second time at their live show. Her low growls are perfect for this.

The Enemy has subtle sounds in between the low tuned guitar. It’s either layered or done with a synthesizer. Either way, it got me to listen very carefully to this track trying to find out what it exactly was that I was hearing. The truth is, I still don’t know. But what I do know is that I was not expecting the ending to be so loud and clear. ‘Listen to what I’ve told you’ are the lyrics that are being shouted at you in a way that it is impossible to not listen. Even if you didn’t know what the lyrics are, you can feel that the song gets serious and wants to get it’s message across. Very nicely done.

Abstain starts very calm with a clean guitar. A world apart from previous song The Enemy. It build up tension, then let’s go again, and explodes at the chorus.

The drums on Dead Inside are playing the main role in this song. Near the end, this song goes all out again, after the breakdown, it casually goes back to the chorus one last time. Heavy riffs and palm muted guitars guide you through this one.

Breaking Away is about breaking away from a relationship that was holding you back, insulting you, maybe even an abusive relationship, or somebody that thinks they know what is right and you know nothing. The heavy pre-chorus build up to a melodic chorus that goes into storytelling verses.

In Vain starts very calm with clean guitars and a soft beat in the background. This one stays calm until the last pre-chorus. Then the electric guitars come out and warm your ears. The drum solo builds up for the last chorus when this song takes the spotlight. It says calm, but the electric guitars add so much warmth and feeling to it.

Unawake breaks in with a heavy riff. This riff seamlessly goes into the riff that’s used in the verses and the chorus. A Very fluent song. Everything changes when the breakdown shows up. The drums give you the beat and the guitar follows with high pinched notes on top. Then Sven Herssens comes in and says ‘Won’t you wake up!’. All of a sudden the rage left the building and this goes fluently into clean guitars for a while. Mantah makes these changes look so easy. So many changes into one song and they all blend together beautifully.

Last song Am I is a song that starts off quite calm. It shows some love for the bass; some fast bass riffs take the spotlight here. A song about the question if you’re being good enough. Good enough for yourself, for someone else, … A feeling we can probably all relate to. Supported by calm but sturdy electric guitars, your mind wanders off while listening to the lyrics. The last minute of the song is calm again. You have the time to reflect on the thinking you just did. And with that, this album comes to an end.

Mantah gives you low tuned and heavy guitar riffs. Evoke gives you a mix between late 90s nu metal, modern metal and metalcore. It’s very melodic but also heavy at the same time. They seemed to have combined the two seamlessly in this album. They really let the instruments speak. Every little thing is so loud and clear. It feels as if you are in the studio with them while they are recording. The vocals seem to be at a bit lower volume. You can still hear them clearly, but the instruments seem to have gotten the storytelling part just right. A beautiful album to listen to, musically at first, but also lyrically when you take the time to dive deeper into this album.

Mantah is:
Sven Herssens – Vocals
Lothar Ryheul  – Drums
Bert Nauwynck – Bass
Dennis Wyffels – Guitar
Bart Vandeportaele – Guitar

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