5 Best Metal Albums Of August 2018

5. Mantar – The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s 2018 and if anything’s cool in the metal underground right now, it’s hardcore. Between Loathe, Code Orange, The Fever 333, Leeched (we’ll get to them…), Rolo Tomassi, Svalbard, Broken Teeth, Knocked Loose and Holding Absence, if you want some critical acclaim from the heavy undergrowth this year, you better be making some deliciously metallic hardcore jams.

Mantar do just that. And then they add in melodic black metal and sludge metal on top because that’s just how good they are. The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze is their third album since the duo’s 2012 formation and beneath the golden veneer that is its cover artwork lie 48 minutes of acerbic growls and dissonant riffing destined to send all but the most battle-hardened of metalheads crying home to mummy.

Modern Art… is the dictionary definition of “abrasive”, slyly hiding maniacal yet captivating melodies like those found on “Age of the Absurd” and “Dynasty of Nails” beneath six feet of blood, dirt and broken glass, as provided by an unyielding quickness, earth-shaking drums and vitriolic wails of anguish.

Mantar are dark, discordant and vicious. But they are also sinfully enveloping, using the grittiest of hooks to lure in the brave and the curious.