Mantis - Glint (2020) Hi-Res

After turning heads with their performance at dunk!2019, we had to bring Belgium's own Mantis on board for their second album, which comes to us now in the double-vinyl form of Glint! Building upon their blended-style philosophy, this muscular, energetic album finds a crossroads of metal, post-rock, stoner/psych, and danceable alt-rock where it all intertwines with harmonious fluidity and impressive confidence. Ever moving, developing and primed to strike, Glint! achieves stirring melodic heights without ever easing its foot off the gas, the ideal remedy for post-rock fans that are allergic to boredom.

The band gains the strong diversity of its sound from a gathering of myriad musical tastes. Not just beholden to heavy rock music, they cite as sources of inspiration genres ranging from Americana to emo to country to funk and beyond. This is reflected in an album that presents a warm and pleasing familiarity while remaining hard to pin down. On the album opener “Stereo No Aware,” for instance, soaring melodies come together with pulsing electronic flourishes, both of which are driven by forceful percussion and snarling rhythm guitar that lay the foundation for everything else happening around them. Then, halfway through, the band takes a hard turn into a dreamy, gradually building spacey passage that evolves into a gnarly stoner rock refrain that brings it all home. Many bands go into the writing process with a commitment to putting whatever it is that comes to mind and feels good into the eventual finished compositions, but not many bands come out the other side with this many dimensions still present and thriving.

Since the release of their 2018 debut full-length Magnolia, Mantis has had the opportunity to go from a little-known independent band from Belgium to one that has shared stages and experiences with artists they’ve greatly admired for years the likes of Caspian, And So I Watch You From Afar, and Brutus. They’ve performed in London, Berlin, and a number of other major cultural hubs, and much of the energy that went into the recording of Glint! is tied to an intense desire to relive those experiences, and to move forward toward everything that lies before them. 2020 has been a year defined by collective stasis, as most of the world has had to put their lives on hold for some period of time. Part of Glint!’s mission statement is to restore some of the vitality that we’ve all been missing over these past months, to remind us that what once was will be again. One could make an argument that this is the most important message to take away from this difficult moment in history, and Mantis is hoping to spread that idea as widely and as vigorously as they are able.