Description

Black vinyl with handmade insert handnumbered in blood. Limited 250 copies

Manipulator is a French act run by M, the man behind everything in Manipulator. M and his Manipulator started out in Rouen in France back in 2007. They released two demos, I Am Lie (2007) and Unearthed (2009) before releasing this first EP in 2012. “Voidound” features three new tracks as well as a Darkthrone cover. The Manipulator songs have this edgy old school death metal vibe, with raw and simplistic guitar riffing and grim, barbaric vocals. Its drenched in reverbed, inter-dimensional leads. Although the “Cromlech” cover doesn’t ape the original’s Sunlight Sound, it captures Darkthrone’s early death metal ambitions quite nicely. Manipulator do pay homage to the track’s bizarre synthesized accompaniment; keys are deployed in force. Synthesizers also make entertainingly subdued appearances on the rest of Voidbound (something that were completely absent on the demo material). All in all, M’s musical skills are satisfying. There are no exceptional musical demonstrations, but they are clearly not needed here. The combination of death metal rhythms and black/doom metal is something you won’t find too often these days and fans of the primal death metal sound should check this out

Track list:
1. Passing The River
2. Massgraves
3. Voyage
4. Cromlech-Darkthrone cover