October 2006
rock-sound.net
Ah - that fourth level of pain! Forty-five minutes and 5 twelve ton compositions later - Manatees manage to do some proper damage on this release for Carlilse's motivesounds. With looming bass lines that could fuel a cover of "Bone Machine" any night [see: "i"] and gripping vocal moans reminiscent of something Undergroove would finance in half a heartbeat, these Manatee fellas have cranked up the intensity and cranked out a debut worth feeling fuzzy about.
But wait - it's not all railroad stakes and barbed wire on this "untitled" release. Check into the second track [ "ii" ] and you'll find a calm sea of guitar strums, swelling bass lines and merely an echo of vocals... until the two minute mark strikes. At this moment - vibrant drums are set free [still in a restrained manner] and a league of ferocious vocals [that bring to mind 3 Stages of Pain] surface the once stagnant black waters. The message:
"we are [all] / forgotten"
One begins to think this band of lads might just know what the...
sctas.com
Manatees untitled debut album is heavy and crushes your soul with its myriad of guitar effects and intelligent metal music. Sort of reminding one of a cross between old Cave In and Neurosis, Manatees relies on precise guitar sludge and thick tribal rhythms amid loud screeched vocals. Having taken half a year to record, the untitled debut features not only guitars, vocals, bass, and drums but also such found sounds as plasterboard, coat hangers, fire extinguishers, and bicycles. Turgid melodies that are far-reaching and never languid opt for an all-out flogging of your soul.
- J-Sin
smother.net
Motive Sounds releases are always releases I´m looking forward to, cause you never know what you get, but you always know that it will be good music. This time Motive Sounds really surprised me, cause this is something I would have never awaited of them. Such a massive wall of sound....great. Manatees is heavy and athmospheric, a bit like Neurosis, Shora and Isis, but compared to this bands Manatees brings in more of this freaked out psychedelic Floyd vibe. I also dig these monk-like chants attended by bloodcurdling screams and crawls. A really impressive release with loads of haunting moments. A musical interplay of heavy riffs and strong emotions....great.
- RB
daredevil.de
Those who felt Boris and Sunn0)))'s 'Altar' lacked a little in the direction department - a collaboration caught between the two band's contrasting aesthetics rather that a groundbreaking, and shaking, conjoining of tones as intended - may, neigh will, find cause to slip back into those doom metal robes courtesy of Carlisle trio Manatees. Since rising from the ashes of oft-overlooked Borders collective Second To Last, the untitled debut from Greg Wynne, Alex Macarte and Paul Heron is a 45 minute discordant sludge rock opus split into five tracks, but clearly designed to be listened to in its entirety, LOUD. Recorded for a second time after scrapping the original cuts, the album charters an epic course through prog, metal and drone, emanating purpose and structure. Yet there's still room for a hefty fiddle of sonic experimentation that puts the aforementioned Southern Lord lot to shame.
Taking their cue from Swans, King Crimson and Neurosis, Manatees are similar masters at delivering crushing highs...
playlouder.com
Making experimentalism an essential experience.
At first listen, Manatees seem to be the latest in a long line of bands destined to be marketed as “sounding like Neurosis”. Not that I think that is a bad thing - the latter’s “Times Of Grace” is one of the seminal albums of the ‘90’s - but unlike most of the other bands whose music is held in comparison, I wouldn’t say that Manatees were actually particularly influenced by the San Franciscan noisemeisters. They just seem to have arrived at roughly the same conclusions.
Yes, both bands utilise slow tempos, a wall-of-sound approach which alternates between face-melting brutality and hypnotic experimentation. But beneath the veneer there are some fundamental differences. Manatees seem to owe much more to the likes of Swans than do Neurosis; and somehow the metal influence which pervades Neurosis seems to be absent here. It might be as heavy as a lorry sandwich, but the source of their inspiration seems to owe more to the experimental underground movement of the...
subba-cultcha.com
Some bands just fit their moniker like a glove. Names that are just so fitting you could never imagine them being called by any other handle. Metallica are one such act, Mastodon and Slayer too, and you can now add Manatees to that list. A huge aquatic creature in terms of both size and weight, yet incredibly graceful, it's the perfect name for this young Carlisle based trio. If evidence is needed to support this claim then look no further than the opening number of this five song debut release. Clocking in at just under the sixteen minutes mark it's a lumbering giant of a track; as wave after wave of guitars gradually build and relent, with a mixture of distant screams and loud guttural growls adding to the dark atmospherics. Each sprawling effort offers something new to proceedings, be it the Tool-esque monastery vocals of 'ii' or the gentle 'iiii', the only track that comes under the 5 minute barrier, which works well as a largely acoustic interlude.
Mixing elements of drone...
rockmidgets.com
There’s something about the name Manatees that has the uninitiated (but about to be blown away) listener expecting passages of calm ambience, a series of soundscapes ideal for drifting away to, as if sailing a still sea, the gentlest breeze propelling your vessel. Ha.
Manatees are brothers of doom and no mistake: this three-piece carve their works from solidified sludge, they grind out riffs so dirty they’ve almost certainly been raised from the bottoms of prehistoric tar pools; they are to their primarily pretty post-rock-releasing label, motivesounds, what a band like Napalm Death would be to Sarah Records. They’re making ripples so large that they could only be accurately compared to those summoned by The Icarus Line if they’d ever signed to, say, V2 or some other pop-rock-orientated operation. Oh.
Influences are admittedly worn proudly upon the sleeves of these three men – Greg, Alex and Paul – but the five untitled pieces that make up the 45-minute-long Untitled> (it’s self-titled record, really - the...
drownedinsound.com
November 2006
bigcheesemagazine.com
Pioneering post-rock label 'Motive Sounds' once again present us with a CD of high quality music. This time by a band called 'Manatee' which sounds quite epic in its own right. Then you look at the CD artwork and you can see the kinda medieval tone already setting the picture. 'The Forever Ending Jitter Quest Of Slowhand Chuckle Walker An Introduction To The Manatee'... wow...
Well the record as a whole is full of Doom rock with experimental edges from other 'found instruments'. By found instruments, I mean a bike, fire extinguisher, tables, coat hangers, broken pint glasses and a wooden board.... these guys've got the gift of the gods when it comes to effective experimental touches. Or the devil maybe.
Infact, it's more power-doom as it packs its punch. Initially a hangbang-athon, it quietens down for a full on bass and drum let path, until we're slowly Ka-pelted with screaming quitars.
If this were a gig to a church ceremony - the devil would be...
velvetgrooves.co.uk
This record just kicked my ass. Manatees are from what their name would suggest. The band make “tribal metal” in terms of Swans, Isis and perhaps Neurosis. The album is 45 minutes long and cut into five parts. “i” the albums first track is over 15 minutes in length. The band create such noise on this record that it must be turned up and played loud! “ii” follows with some monk like chanting, it all in all sounds pretty evil. The album is intense, captivating and you just can't stop listening till its over. For a debut its got a huge scope at times and the best part is that they only seldom use vocals which, is important for bands who like things heavy in my eyes. There label (motive sounds) and the band really know whats going on.
- John Siwicki
comfortcomes.com
Tis finally the season to be chilly. And as winter does at last decide to grace our tiny island, Carlisle trio, Manatees, release their debut effort Untitled Luckily, it's the perfect soundtrack to the next few months of cold days, colder nights and staring into that great big, bad blackness outside your window.
At a push this is post-rock; no track dips below four minutes and the longest runs to almost 16, but these Manatees do their very best to avoid being caught in one particular genre box. Within the sprawling first track alone there are echoes of artists as disparate as Mastodon, Mono, Kid 606 and the Pixies. The second sounds like Tool on a tribal drum trip with Mike Patton and elsewhere there are swirling effects, cavernous screams, walls of impenetrable, metallic noise and a solemn poem made of simple guitar plucks and warped samples.
There is some warmth to be found among the occasional bout of sledgehammer noise and the slow rumbling of a bass guitar that sounds like it has...
new-noise.net
Having been aware of Motive Sounds roster and liked a fair few of the bands involved in it I was surprised to hear this, the debut recording album for manatees, blatantly the heaviest thing on the label. Following a similar path to gods Neurosis, Swans, Toad Liquor and there ilk but retaining a space of its own without ever cloning there idols.
Over the space of 5 tracks the boys display a talent and scope of vision that far outweighs there short career so far. The omnipresent tribal element of Percussion and call and response vocal mantras are used properly, adding layers of heaving weight onto the actual riffs, you don’t need massively distorted guitars to be heavy. Melancholic melody rides along on huge riffs before giving way to subtle samples and mood setting atmospherics.
Track 1 even clocks in at over 15 mins while most of the others hover around the 7 minute mark.
Highlight for me is the final track, which draws on latter day Neurosis like riffs but stays...
dieshellsuit.co.uk
This is certainly something different- the more you listen, the more different things you hear, and everything about this album is just impressive. Manatees have managed to experiment with different sounds without making a mess of it, and respect goes to them for doing their own thing and not taking the easy option and jumping onto any bandwagons. It's easy to get lost in this music- Manatees will completely take over your mind, and will have you on the edge of your seat eagerlly awaiting where their music will take you next. Each song here is brilliantly written and will certainly grab your attention. On the first track, Manatees take you on an exciting journey lasting over 15 minutes- and the fact that this is exciting is very special. Few bands can pull of such a long song without boring the listener.
It is the innovative vocals and mesmerising music that really grab your attention on the second track- you simply won't be able to fast forward to the next track till it's over.
The most interesting song by far is track 4, an extremely creative and beautifully played piece of...
myspace.com/killerdienamitezine
December 2007
ztmag.com
Possibly in competition with the Mystery Jets for sheer number every day objects that shouldn’t double up as musical instruments, The Manatees are the latest signing to independent record label motivesounds recordings. A label more at home with bands producing something a little less heavy and normally without those darned vocals found in most music. So they seem to be sticking their necks out and taking a risk here with Manatess and their debut album ‘Untitled’. Only with music as good as this there shouldn’t really be a risk involved.
Unlike their sea dwelling name’s sake they’re far from gentle. Instead what’s produced is a brooding post apocalyptic sonic landscape wiped clean by someone having finally pushed that big ol’ red button. Musically they have as much in common with the doom rock of Neurosis as the prog rock of Pink Floyd. It opens up a world of possibilities where monk like gothic chanting is overlaid with screams of “We are forgotten” before rifts drudged up from...
godisinthetvzine.co.uk
I fucking hate manatees. They're lazy sea cows that eat moldy kelp all day. They're ugly as shit. They ruin carefree joyrides for power boaters by swimming their fat asses into awaiting propellers. Fuck this stupid "endangered species," these homely speed bumps of the sea.
But I like Manatees and I like Untitled. Drawing from the extended post-rocks of Mogwai and Tortoise, the epic flourishes of Boris, and the haunting horror of SunnO))), this three piece, while not breaking any new ground, combines these nuanced influences to create a dark wall of sound.
With five songs stretching for forty-five minutes, these scruffy lads wisely use their time to explore both the openness and density of sludgy rock. "iiii" features a medieval lute (or at least it sounds like a lute) that I imagine King Arthur listening to. "iii"'s echoing drums usher in a ringing guitar drenched in distortion and reverb, the perfect backdrop for your neighborhood cult's mass suicide.
The best song, though, sneaks...
adequacy.net
Cinematic' is a word that seems to come up fairly often whenever someone describes the output of one of the many, many slowcore /Neurisis/whatever-we're-
calling-them-this-week bands that have sprung up since Isis' Oceanic made everyone sit up and take notice. It's not as oblique an adjective as some may think, given music's ability to conjure images for the listener, but it is one that gets somewhat overused. In the case of Manatees' Untitled, the descriptor is perfectly apt. This album sounds like the OST to an unreleased film - a flowing, undulating soundscape in five movements. The songs - titled 'i', 'ii', 'iii', 'iiii' and 'iiiii' - flow together seamlessly. This is an album meant to be absorbed completely, not dipped in and out of.
The influences are worn on the members' sleeves, to be sure - the eight-and-a-half minute mark of 'i' showcases a two-note bass riff and drumming pattern taken almost directly from Oceanic, and the more instrumentally intricate moments on the album...
ultimatemetal.com
Many moons ago I was listening to more ‘emocore’ acts such as Poison the Well, and it was at one of the band's shows I first encountered Cult of Luna, who were playing support for some reason. A man at a podium with some kind of electronic gadget we couldn’t see started making noises and slowly a band appeared. Last on the stage was a singer, who took straight to the microphone with a strained roar as a riff-to-end-all-riffs came crashing down onto us unsuspecting kids. Since then I have always liked Cult of Luna’s crushing groove and epic song-writing, but surprisingly I was less taken by Isis. Anyway, long story short, Manatees are about as close to those bands as England is going to produce. And they are pretty damn close.
The opening bars of the album do in fact sound a lot like old Poison the Well, but soon this gives way to the chugging marathon of a song that is simply titled ‘I’. The, often deceptively, simple track twists and turns for its’ full 15 minutes, while crawling through thunderous noise to...
thesilentballet.com
Like the sea-going mammal from which the band takes its name, the music can seem both ponderous and graceful. And, like the manatee, it can occasionally make one feel one’s just been run over by a motorboat.
Although billed as label Motive Sound’s most vocal-heavy release to date, the most attention-grabbing thing about 'Untitled', the band’s first album, are the inexorable riffs, pummeling drums and grinding sonic textures on its five tracks. One can well imagine this album finding a home on the Hydrahead label. Manatees’ noisy, distorted riffs also reflect such predecessors as Neurosis (cited in the band’s bio) and performers like Old and Godflesh.
On some tracks – such as the opening song - the band sounds like an ultraheavy version of Tortoise. The other side of the coin is the band’s excellent handle on dynamics, quieting things down before the music gets too oppressively noisy; in doing so they evoke such Kranky performers as Labradford and...
pennyblackmusic.co.uk
An intense metal bent is made very apparent by the throat-burning vocals and guitars that probe violently. The bass undercurrent takes them into the subliminal thought processes of Joy Division territory. Yet from this bleak liquidity and cathartic fury, they can just as easily drop into a funeral pace minimal drone or a post-rock shimmer. Manatees, it is clear, do not wish to make it easy on any sub-groupings of their support constituency. Indeed, even before the first track, containing all the elements listed above, has finished, it then drifts effortlessly into weightless, purgatorial slide-prog. It is all expansive, ambitious stuff that later encompasses a Gregorian-like chant, sheer static and a gentle Latinate sway. Manatees push at the boundaries of what extremer metal can achieve.
- Skif
vanityproject.co.uk
January 2007
planbmag.com
Manatees debut album claims to be untitled, however, its subtitle is longer than my arm: "The Forever Ending Jitter Quest Of Slow Hand Chuckle Walker: An Introduction To The Manatee", yep, more than a touch over the top and pretentious. Never mind though, because like the terrible band name it doesn't prepare you for what lies within, which is actually brilliant and inventive stuff.
Manatees sound is seriously sludgy; so slow at times that they almost crawl to a stop and so heavy and down-tuned that the noises they produce almost disappear out of your range of hearing. They seem to owe a debt to Swans; doom laden and very depressed, but they manage to squeeze more than a tune or two in there and have an epic prog edge that saves them from being a band that will only appeal to a select few. The opening track clocks in at a massive 15 and a bit minutes but it's hard to tell where it ends as the next track blends right in to it. This approach works really well for their sound which starts slow and dreamy like Godspeed...
roomthirteen.com
January 2007
rock-sound.net
Febrary 2007
uncut.co.uk
Carlisle-spawned Manatees are headlining this coming weekend’s DiScover Club at Notting Hill Arts Club, London, a free event booked by this fine website in collaboration with Rough Trade Shops. To say we’re excited to have them would be something of a massive understatement; we’re pant-shittingly expectant.
With comparisons tossed about to the tune of King Crimson and Isis, Manatees are monsters of rock through and through. Their sludge-doom-grind or something template is one followed by a fair few other acts, but the trio’s balancing of destructive bombast, eerie atmospherics and moving passages of introspective ambience is perfect. Their debut album stroke EP of last year, Untitled (released through Motivesounds in some truly special packaging), received rave reviews in the rock and metal press, and made Rock Sound magazine’s end-of-the-year best-of list. We played a track from it on the last DiS podcast – download it here – and the record is reviewed by...
drownedinsound.com
March 2007
planbmag.com
March 2007
creativereview.co.uk
June 2007
die-gestalten.de
October 2006
rock-sound.net
December 2007
kerrang.com
From the UK a progressive rock/metal band reaches our office, and it’s called Manatees. The package of the album looks really cool, kind of like the Mit Gas album by Tomahawk, yet slightly different. Enough jabbering, let's see what they’re about!
Manatees sound like a postcore band to me, but a versatile one I might add. Although the album immediately slaps you in the face heavily with the fifteen minute track ‘i’ the track also shows some gentile passages and interesting soundscapes. Also they don’t sound like the next Neurosis or Isis copy, which is something that gets hard to avoid when doing this style of music.
Vocally there is varied between screams and a sort of talking singing, nothing really impressing on this front. Personally I’m a big fan of the sound of the bass guitar, because it’s mixed in really heavy, like it should. The rhythm section offers some interesting beats in these (in general) quite slow tempos, while the guitar goes from...
metalrage.com
I slept on Manatees' promotional disc for a very long time and I'm extremely sorry I did so. Their untitled release, or the lengthy The Forever Ending Jitter Quest of Slow Hand Chuckie: An Introduction to the Manatee is an ethereal and simultaneously heavy release.
Their press sheet sums up the band's sound quite well: "The band name was chosen because of the eponymous creature's size and weight, yet grace and placidity - a sleeping giant, and a dying species under threat."
The music of Manatees is in the same vein of Isis, but does not mimic their sound in the least bit. The band cites groups such as Swans, Neurosis, Pink Floyd, Old Man Gloom and Boris as their musical influences; using these artists as their musical guides, Manatees have created a refreshing album. They sound like an original brand of drone, combining repetition, trailing percussion, many different vocal styles, and lengthy tracks.
Manatees' debut album offers five songs, numbered by roman numerals. "I" seems to flow like a flooded river over several...
scenepointblank.com
February 2008
idnworld.com
February 2008
kerrang.com
