Atlantis Rising/Spiral Castle

The Sentinel · Post by **The Sentinel** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:09 pm

I'm listening to these albums a lot lately. Bought them when they came out but never cared much about them. A while back I suddenly thought: There are NO mediocre Manilla Road albums, so I decided to investigate these albums more and it helped. Atlantis Rising is more straightforward Manilla Road like the old days with some progressive elements here and there. I don't know why it didn't click instantly (never had this with Manilla Road albums). Spiral Castle is more mid tempo and contains long moody passages to create a different kind of atmosphere but its undoubtly Manilla Road and it really works. I'm glad I took these out of the shelf.

Any opinions about these MR albums?

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 11:03 am

Gates of Fire and Voyager are better albums, but I still like these a lot too.

I have always liked Atlantis Rising. It's a great comeback album in my opinion, faithful to the thrashy Mystification/Out of the Abyss era with some epic parts thrown in for good measure. One or two filler songs but some songs are really strong.

Spiral Castle for me was the hardest Manilla Road album to get into due to the quirky song structures, the offbeat rhythms, peculiar production etc (it sounds almost like a Cirith Ungol album?!) but now I love it. It's almost ridiculously epic, very varied, very complex and never gets boring once you get into it. The title song is one of Manilla Road's best songs ever. Hellroadie unleashes some utterly insane vocals in that song. Those high, nasal wailings give me goosebumps every single time.

A new Manilla Road album is looming, probably early next year. I can't wait. I spoke to Hellroadie at HOA and he said they had some very fast and aggressive material this time.

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:06 pm

Kind of sad but maybe not surprising how nobody is interested in discussing or giving their opinions on the merits or shortcomings of two albums by such a legendary band. I bet if this thread had been called "Crystal Logic/The Deluge" instead it would have been swarming with entries.

ION BRITTON · Post by **ION BRITTON** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:23 pm

Well, probably there's not much to say, I personally didn't like any of the recent Manilla Road albums, not that there's anything particurarly bad in them except from some totally unfitting aggro vocals, but I just can't find something really exciting either. At best they are OK albums, but I don't have neither the time nor the will to listen to simply 'OK' albums anymore. Spiral Castle was the weakest one imo.

Black Axe · Post by **Black Axe** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:40 pm

I need to investigate these albums too before I can give a proper responce.

The Sentinel · Post by **The Sentinel** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:00 pm

ION BRITTON wrote:Well, probably there's not much to say, I personally didn't like any of the recent Manilla Road albums, not that there's anything particurarly bad in them except from some totally unfitting aggro vocals, but I just can't find something really exciting either. At best they are OK albums, but I don't have neither the time nor the will to listen to simply 'OK' albums anymore. Spiral Castle was the weakest one imo.

I use to have the same with Spiral Castle but somehow it comes together now. A very experimental record; the Cirith Ungol comparison is indeed somehow appropriate here. Merchants of Death with The Sharks demanding vocals is just an example of how great this record really is. It's one of the most "old" sounding records in the new millenium imo.

Levi · Post by **Levi** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:16 pm

I think Spiral Castle is the best one of their albums since the comeback. I really like that one, the others don't really click for me, maybe one day...

Capricorn · Post by **Capricorn** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:56 pm

I like these two, it's Gates of Fire (some great stuff here, but the production is horrible) and the latest one, which I still have not really gotten into.

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:47 pm

The Sentinel wrote:Merchants of Death with The Sharks demanding vocals is just an example of how great this record really is.

I'm pretty certain that's Hellroadie's vocals and not Shark's though.

Piotr Sargnagel · Post by **Piotr Sargnagel** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:59 am

I love *Spiral...*, think it's a great record and downhill from there. But then my opinion of Manilla Road is mixed at the best of times

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:17 am

I simply don't like any of that stuff, it already went shit on 'Out of the Abyss'. And it annoys me that I know some people who lap up all the stuff old bands put out cos it's somehow showing some sort of allegiance yet never bother putting some fucking effort in and digging up obscurer stuff which completely eclipses all the boring new material coming out.

great_knuthulhu · Post by **great_knuthulhu** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:03 am

But Daniel, aren't people who just automatically put down new stuff by old bands just as annoying? This decade's Manilla Road albums are not as good as the best 80s albums, but there is really good material on them. Even Voyager, which to me is a bit lacking in ideas and ponders on too much, has it's moments where it's really great. It's easily better than 90% of the more obscure stuff you can find too.

mordred · Post by **mordred** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:06 am

daniel wrote:I simply don't like any of that stuff, it already went shit on 'Out of the Abyss'. And it annoys me that I know some people who lap up all the stuff old bands put out cos it's somehow showing some sort of allegiance yet never bother putting some fucking effort in and digging up obscurer stuff which completely eclipses all the boring new material coming out.

And what annoys the hell out of me is people who don't care about new releases that completely eclipses all the 3rd rate "obscure" stuff they prefer to dig out just because it's obscure.

The newer Manilla Road records piss all over pretty much any given obscure album there is to dig out.

roihlem · Post by **roihlem** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:16 am

I have to agree with Daniel about the "Out Of The Abyss" album, I listened to it once and don`t plan to give it a second one so soon. "Atlantis Rising" was also not my cup of tea, but I listened to some samples of "Spiral Castle" and they sounded quite good. Need to hear this album...

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:49 pm

What word should I use instead of obscure? I'm talking about anything that isn't mainstream, and if you're just another person who hasn't an ear for quirky etc. stuff then there's no point going on. I HAVE tried to listen to the new MR for instance, and it was BORING, and the reason why it is more boring and less 'worthy' of my time than some old not-so-perfect stuff is that the other material I'll listen to has a different energy and atmosphere of its own, a new MR album is just a band that once was amazing sounding shit. It doesn't sound any less shit cos 'hey it's MR', I don't respect bands in that way that I have to give anyone more of a chance than others, and I feel no 'peer-pressure' to say something is good if I don't think so.