Amaranthe – Manifest

By now I’d imagine most metal fans have heard Amaranthe at some point. The band have ben going for a decade, releasing their self titled debut album in 2011, and have been busy touring ever since, either on headline tours, support slots or festivals. They stand out from the crowd with their vocals as well as the music. While most bands have one or maybe two vocalists, Amaranthe take it up a notch with three singers – Elize Ryd delivering beautiful clean female vocals, Henrik providing harsh male vocals, and Nils providing clean male vocals. A pairing of clean female vocals with growling male vocals isn’t unusual, but that extra male vocalist adds a lot to the mix. It’s not a case of female vocals with the male acting as backing vocals – during the course of a typical song the three share lead vocal duties, but with some songs there is one that’s more the focus of attention, and in songs such as “Boom!” it’s Henrik that’s the main vocalist, whereas in another song it might be Nils or Elize.

Check out “Viral” from the new album…

Musically Amaranthe are a mix of metal with pop, which obviously infuriates metal purists, but for those with open minds there’s a lot to enjoy with Amaranthe. The songs are really catchy and the guitar riffs are nice and heavy. Those heavy riffs plus the growling vocals mean there’s a strong metal element, and the pop elements add the catchiness . I can’t think of another band that so successfully blends metal with another genre other than Skindred with their Reggae infused sound.

With this new album Amaranthe continue their successful formula and why not – it’s one that clearly works for them as they’ve grown steadily in popularity and it’s a distinctive sound that is instantly recognisable as Amaranthe. That’s not to say it’s just the same as the other albums – it’s not. The core of the sound is the same mix of pop and metal but there are other sounds here that are different, so the album is more an evolution on the previous album than a radical reinvention. It’s one hell of a good album as a result.

Check out “Fearless”…

The only disappointing part is that the events of 2020 have fucked up live music so it’s likely to be another 6-12 months at least before we get to see Amaranthe on tour playing this new material, a frustrating wait but it’s going to be epic when they and other bands start touring again. If their live shows were good before, just imagine how good the atmosphere will be with high energy songs like these being played to crowds desperate to enjoy gigs again.

“Manifest” is out now.

Track listing:

1. Fearless
2. Make it better
3. Scream my name
4. Viral
5. Adrenaline
6. Strong
7. The game
8. Crystalline
9. Archangel
10. Boom!
11. Die and wake up
12. Do or die