Album Review: Man As Plague – Titanomachy (Self Released)

Man as Plague, a metal melting pot from the north-western part of the Netherlands present their new album, Titanomachy. Featuring thirteen tracks with an overarching theme of Greek mythology and its parallels to our modern world, it will be released on June 2nd, 2023.

With a creative over-arching theme and a blistering array of ideas, Man as Plague will certainly turn some heads with this new album. Especially when they come in so hard and heavy as they do with the title track. Rooted in death metal, but with a ton of progressive layers, it’s a manic and meaty introduction with some notable anthemic qualities.

Qualities that continue into the guttural and grim speed and heaviness of Sisyphus, the garish ferocity of Portal, and the thrash-inspired Mnemosyne. Man as Plague have set the bar extremely high and shown that they mean extremely heavy business here.

It’s one thing to throw a ton of scathing riffs, bone-crunching drum beats, and guttural vocals at the listener, and it’s quite another to keep someone engaged. Man as Plague have no such problem as they continue to showcase more and more extravagance, while being uncompromisingly brutal. The likes of Triton, Prometheus, Dolus, Morpheus, and Cronos can be simply called epic head-bangers.

The keywords being ‘head-bangers’, which is what this entire album will compel you to do. Man as Plague don’t really have any other tempo than ‘hyper’ but are clever enough to add in small layers that cut through the mass of heavy noise that threatens to melt the brain matter.

Even as the album starts to get into double figures, it still holds the interest. Partially because of the innate brutality on show, partially because of their progressive imagination, and partially because there is always something, even if it’s small, that makes each track stand out on their own. With the methodical meatiness of The Observer, the chaotic savagery of Pandora’s Box, the absurd intensity of Void, and the blistering brashness of Deimos, Man as Plague put the exclamation point on this stunner of an album.

Never heard of them before? You won’t forget them anytime soon once you hear this beast of a record.

Man as Plague – Titanomachy Track Listing:

1. Titanomachy
2. Sisyphus
3. Portal
4. Mnemosyne
5. Triton
6. Prometheus
7. Dolus
8. Morpheus
9. Cronos
10. The Observer
11. Pandora’s Box
12. Void
13. Deimos

Links

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