Thymiama Mannan

Thy Flesh appeared in 2004 with their demo “Concept for the Devil” and after that they were disbanded. After ten whole years of absence they came back this year (2014), having only one member of the forming members still in their formation, completely different, with their first full length album. “Thymiama Mannan” was released in February of 2014 and it contains seven compositions of overall duration of about forty minutes. This particular release is one of those releases that I need time and a lot of listens in order to manage to end up to a conclusion. So after almost over than one month that I have this album in my possession, I decided to start this review. You would be wondering for sure, as I did, what could possibly be offered by a band which in reality is inactive, ten years after its creation and having only one release until now. So let’s try to discover it.

Here the band is playing “orthodox” Black Metal following the footsteps of Watain, who are their greatest influence, but also combining other influences by the Scandinavian scene mainly, such as Dissection in the more melodic, medium speed parts mostly, or Dark Funeral in the more violent and dark ones. The riffs mainly are tremolo, fast, violent and dark while there are also a lot of parts which are characterized by the typical disharmonic riffs. Surely the riffs are not original and they follow the already known by other bands structures. However the listener, apart from a few a little tedious parts, will come across a lot of interesting ideas. The atmosphere is heavy and dark throughout the entire duration of the album giving to the listener ritualistic images. The structure of the tracks is quite good and straightforward. They present their ideas in a very direct way, without making things too complicated. So the compositions, although they are long regarding their duration, they don’t become tedious for the listener.

Concerning the performance of the instruments, Thymiama Mannan is one of those albums that it makes the things clear from the beginning. Every instrument is played flawlessly, without any mistake, while it delivers the images, the feelings and the atmosphere in the best way possible. The guitars are heavy and dark, played with a lot of passion and accuracy. The bass fills the sound well without being easily noticed. The drums have interesting lines, other times technical, other times brutal, they have a lot of changes, beautiful, solid passages and violent – chaotic outbursts, while their performance is flawless. The vocals are harsh, dark Black Metal vocals, quite common and with no particular interest. The production is bass and dark but absolutely clean. The mixture is very good as it maintains the massive and solid character of the compositions, the dark and thick atmosphere but without losing any instrument. Finally, the lyrics are written in English and they speak of rituals, of Satanism and of magic.

As you must have understood, Thy Flesh have returned after ten years with a release that can draw attention. Personally I still haven’t answered to the question “What they can offer after ten years”, as originality is absent from the album and maybe the personality that a musician should have formed after ten years is absent too. In any case, the first effort is interesting and surely it creates hope for their future and their development. The fans of “orthodox” Black Metal it worth to give them a chance. The rest of you listen to it before you buy.