Full Album Stream: Manes: Teeth, Toes And Other Trinkets – new compilation album

MANES are poised to return and return big with a brand new album soon - but before they “truly come back to life, they figured they’d dig up some dead stuff for everyone to enjoy. This [‘Teeth, Toes And Other Trinkets’] is a collection of odds and ends that on the surface might seem to appeal mostly to the most die-hard completist, but listening to it themselves, they found it working surprisingly well on its own. It is at times very lo-fi and not at all polished, but swamped in atmosphere and nostalgia, at least for them”. Listening to it myself as I am writing this, I am finding it surprisingly enjoyable (but the last gem which is a bit hard to take). The collection is out now, January the 17th, 2014 on Debemur Morti Productions (the Noble Servant of Chaos) who took the surprising step into the future and updated their (his/hers) website to one that fits 21st century requirements  (Facebook doesn’t count – it’s a nightmare and not an upgrade), so visit it here and while there, enter Debemur Morti new e-shop and order a vinyl copy of ‘Teeth, Toes And Other Trinkets’ here, of get it in its digital format from BandCamp here. ‘Teeth, Toes And Other Trinkets’ is an anthology of eleven unreleased, obscure and hard-to-find tracks/alternate versions culled from the verdant MANES archives. Dating back to the periods of their stellar ‘Vilosophe’ and ‘How The World Came To An End’ full-lengths from 2003 and 2007 respectively, these previous-buried jewels have been exhumed and presented anew for fresh consumption:

Formed in 1993 in Trondheim, Norway by guitarist, keyboardist and programmer Tor-Helge Skei (also known as Cernunus) and vocalist Thomas Berglie (known as Sargatanas), MANES' debut album, ‘Under Ein Blodraud Maane’, came out in 1999 through Hammerheart Records, although “their reputation had already grown quite formidable by then, thanks to a string of incredible demos (1993's ‘Maanens Natt’, 1994's ‘Ned I Stillheten’, and 1995's ‘Til Kongens Grav de Dode Vandrer’) - all featuring a desolate, icy cold, synth-laden brand of “trve” black metal” writes Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic (more here). By the time MANES' second album appeared, 2003's ‘Vilosophe’, the band had counted founder Tor-Helge Skei, vocalists Asgeir Hatlen and Tommy Sebastian Halseth, drummer Rune Hoemsnes, bassist Torstein Parelius and guitarist Eivind Fjoseide. Reinventing the band's sound into an “avant-garde mishmash of metal, prog rock, trip-hop, and electronica”, the album, praised by critics, has reportedly “alienated most of their original fan base”. In 2007, MANES released their third full-length, ‘How The World Came To An End’, through Candlelight Records. It had Alex Henderson, AllMusic lamenting:

“Much of the album, in fact, falls outside of metal altogether. A variety of comparisons come to mind when this CD is playing – sometimes DEAD CAN DANCE, sometimes DEPECHE MODE, sometimes even Sting - but not once is DARK FUNERAL or MARDUK a valid comparison, and anyone hoping for a return to black metal certainly won’t find it here. Some black metal enthusiasts have vehemently lambasted MANES for their change of direction, but the fact is that ‘How The World Came To An End’ is a generally well-crafted and intriguing, if slightly uneven, disc that electronica fans should be aware of.” [More here]

MANES features: Eivind Fjoseide – guitar and keyboards, Asgeir Hatlen – vocals, Torstein Parelius – bass, Rune Hoemsnes - drums and Tor-Helge Skei - guitar, keyboards and programming