Review Summary: Rammstein worship that outdoes most of their discog.
It took them seven albums, but they did it. Erdling has successfully and masterfully combined their obvious love and respect for one of the most popular metal bands to ever exist with their own style and flair. Mana is a near-perfect mixture of industrial rhythms that are intense and interesting, and well-crafted song structures that never try to do too much or too little. They change up when you feel like they need to, and end when they should.
A good portion of the riffs here are excellent, and the rest are at least solid. Catchy like they should be for this style of metal, but inventive and devoid of cheese. The band really lets loose here compared to all of their previous work. Mana isn’t afraid to go all out with a blistering guitar and double-bass drum assault, but also knows when to pull back and cruise, or bring the heaviness to even things out. Throw in some genuinely awesome, well placed, and not at all overwrought solos and solid vocals (both clean and harsh) and what you have is something that sounds like what Rammstein might come up with right now if they reverse-aged themselves about a quarter century.
Dominus Omnium revolves around a killer main riff that’s one of the best I’ve heard all year. Miasma has an anthem-like quality with smooth melodies and neat vocal interchanges. Ohne Uns blends catchy yet technical riffage with slick electronic backdrops. Hinter dunklen Wolken leans on dueling guitar melodies that soar and swerve but still have heft and impact. Sternenschimmer has epic overtones and the best solo on the album, making for a perfect closer. Mana is a massively enjoyable, unashamedly fun, but grounded and accomplished album that is well timed (37 minutes) and expertly paced (average song length around three minutes); a pleasure to listen to all the way through.
It must be noted that Erdling’s entire discog is at least decent, but this album is on a completely different level. Aus den Tiefen is not quite as entirely dismissible as I had originally presumed. Some solid riffs and catchy tunes are present but overall, it’s just ok (2.9). Supernova was a solid improvement in all aspects but still couldn’t get out from under the shadow of the band/style it was clearly emulating (3.6). The rest of the discog ranges from almost great to barely good and the whole stretch just feels like the band couldn’t decide if they wanted to copy their idols wholesale or make an earnest attempt to find their own unique sound.
In the end, the answer was both. Mana is a testament to persistence and determination. Erdling has clearly poured their heart and soul into their music since day one, but they lacked experience and maturity; the passion simply wasn’t translating well enough to produce something truly amazing. Until now.
4.1/5
