Mania “Little Pieces of Violence” CD (Phage Tapes)
Although I can hear the lineage that Mania's been progressing on since
around, I dunno, Ultra-Negative or Insidious & Alone, this is the
most specific and developed Mania yet, beyond Grim Conditions, Decrepit,
or Foul Inside – from track one, the most use of reverb and space is
made, along with the individual sounds being more distinct than ever
with a lot of saturation but little bleed-through.
I
think it's now time for me to admit that the newer Mania material,
especially this one, makes some of the older stuff sound like shit in
comparison. Yes, that much of a difference. Several years ago, I liked
Hate Like Hell, Miserable Disposition, and Disgust a whole lot, but
today, on account of these more developed releases, they just sound like
the stuff between Taint and Mania that bridges the gap. Nowadays we see
Bitewerks as a master of subtlety – who'da thunk it? Metal junk stays
in the background, rattling, clunking and smacking around instead of
smashin' n' bashin' (some of it sounds tonal!). Vocals seethe and bleed
out of the mix instead of roaring, screeching, and so on – but still
with the signature echo and flange with accompanying sexy feedback that
beats the piss outta Ramleh (sorry!). Some excellent torture screams
midway through. It also seems as though his use of synth electronics
have scaled back over this time, without losing any nastiness – always
wet, drooling, and ready even if they're not especially loud or
in-your-face. Whitehouse influence is even there – Peter Kurten, New
Britain, Right To Kill. Sexy, warbly high-pitched tones with an
overloaded phase effect and backround explosions, who else are you gonna
think of? Someone once wrote that Taint was like Whitehouse on
steroids. It wasn't. Mania is like Whitehouse on really good speed. A
dab'll do ya. Quality over quantity. At one point, things start to
remind me of Iron Fist Of The Sun, of all fucking things. That kind of
comparative weirdness is why I like these subgenres of music. Even some
japanoise delay-stutter towards the end! Guy always delivers but always
surprises. How many projects like this can you say that about?
One last note on the vocals – only gets better with each
release. I can tell there are lyrics in some parts, only vocalisation in
others. So few could get away with that! Some of my other “favorites”
couldn't. I wanna suggest that more should try that technique, but...you
know.
review by:
