Review by Michael on March 11, 2025.

German sludge-punk-grunge-black metal shooting stars are back with their new album Post Apocalyptic Depression and with it comes a very emm… let's say unusual cover. It looks somehow like a girl got some pills for her birthday party, got mad, shot all her friends and doesn't know what to do right now. Or she is a huge Taylor Swift fan and put the new Mantar CD into her stereo accidentally.

Well, we'll never know but what we will know is how the post apocalyptic depression sounds like. To anticipate a little bit, if you expected some changes in Mantar's style, you better quit reading the review right now. If you loved the last three, this depression will not disappoint you either. Was the end already promised in 2022 and with it some enduring pain, the duo has decided to give the band another round.

Still the vocals are pretty rough and noisy and more punk than anything else and with it comes the noisy, anarchic and challenging guitars. I always have the feeling that Mantar's music is the audible equivalent to some stinking toilet at a German railroad station. No compromise and a huge middle finger that is stretched out to society.

And so are the lyrics. Titles like "Rex Perverso" (a dedication to all the great autocrats that pop out everywhere like mushrooms at the moment), "Das Halsgericht" (no, my dear German-speaking friends, not "Das Salzgericht"; which is probably about some kind of self-justice or "Church Of Suck" are mirroring the state of the morality in the world today.

Musically they still have a good way to groove like hell, but always with this unpleasant aura of being the salt in the wound. Where they were a little bit more blackish on the first two albums, they go more into grunge (like Nirvana did on "In Utero") and sludge this time. Everything sounds quite tough and challenging. Even though the songs are often catchy as hell, they don't sound too pleasant at all. Maybe it is because of the distortion sounds in the songs, or the fucked-up vocals that sometimes sound a little bit slurred down to stretch out that pissed-off factor even more here and there. The repetitive parts in songs like "Axe Death Scenario" (sounds like a new Tarantino movie, doesn't it?) or "Two Choices Of Eternity" for example puts additional stress on the relaxed listener and makes you feel quite uncomfortable. But this is an excellent formula to keep in the mind of the consumer, and because of this unpleasant and slightly disgusting touch the band spreads with their music you also might be fascinated by them.

What might be the most notable change compared to Pain Is Forever And This Is The End is that the guys even care less about musical trends and the ability to get access to their stuff. This time they worked even harder to make it difficult to like the album because the songs really sound kind of spit out and so the 12 songs are blessed with an even bigger fuck-off attitude than the previous compositions.

So maybe this is the common thread between the cover and the music – the music isn't easy to listen to and might suck sometimes, I guess the same goes for the girl.

Rating: 9 out of 10 postnatal depressions