The dark shores of Baltic Sea are home to gloomy melancholy and a place where many sad stories have come to an inevitable end. Still, in rare occasions new life emerges from the sea.
Finnish coastal town of Kotka is the birth place of Marianas Rest, a band whose metal is forged in crushing pressure of the deep. Formed in 2013, the band dredges bottom mud and feeds on Scandinavian distress.
History of the band is brief, but the members have gathered experience in various recording groups. Marianas Rest released it’s first full length album via Sliptrick Records 21.10.2016 titled Horror Vacui.
Their music comes heavy and without a hurry. Hints of doom metal can be traced in Marianas Rests music as well as black metal influences. The whole package is crusted with melancholic melodies. With Marianas Rest, it’s all about the mood. Marianas Rest’s line up is Jaakko Mäntymaa (vocals), Nico Mänttäri (guitars), Harri Sunila (guitars), Nico Heininen (drums), Harri Vainio (bass) and Aapo Koivisto (keyboard).
Horror Vacui features eight tracks of hopelessness, nihilism and existential pondering. Horror Vacui (freely translated ”nature abhors a vacuum”) asks, does mankind ever really learn or truly evolve? Are we just repeating our past mistakes on our way to oblivion? The anxieties that come with modern western lifestyle are incarnated in the story of Roger McMillan: A lonely astronaut in space, who has to watch our planet come to an end. The story comes to life with fragments of a longer audio drama called The Final Breaths of Astronaut Roger McMillan on the US Glory. The story was written and acted by Jaxon Combs.
Horror Vacui was recorded, mixed and produced by Teemu Aalto, whose previous works include such great Finnish metal acts as Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum. You actually can hear the voice of Insomniums Niilo Sevänen in the track Nadir. The whole thing was recorded and mixed in Studio Korkeakoski and Studio Rantakatu, both located in Kotka, Finland. The album was mastered by Svante Forsbäck in Chartmakers.
Although the songs are heavy, dark and slow, the refined production gives a sort of organic and airy feel to the album. There are moments of calm amidst the storm. The album received many good reviews and the band went supporrting Dark Tranquility in Russia on the Atoma Tour later January, 2017.
Media Reviews
"The uniqueness of the sound makes Marianas Rest hard to compare to any other band. Although it is possible to tell some sources of inspiration, the album as such is original and has its own style. It’s a very compact project and even though it is a debut album, it sounds mature. It isn’t a musical baby, but a grownup personality which stands in front of the listener. Marianas Rest skipped their own puberty and therefore we can only wait which way they will develop. And will they develop even further? Will they remain where they are? Will they change? " - Milada Střítezská.
"For the small group of you who don't understand anything, there are colorful rating bars at the bottom." - Obscuro.cz (Ratings: 9.5/10).
"There’s always a band to find that’s just slightly below the radar that is ready to bubble up to the surface. Finland’s Marianas Rest is the latest example of this, proving to be a force to be reckoned with on their debut album, Horror Vacui. Featuring Omnium Gatherum keyboardist Aapo Koivisto, this is melodic doom/death metal that appears to be more than you expect as you listen along." - deadrhetoric.com (Ratings: 8/10).
"While you're listening to the piece, try to imagine stars and galaxies being influenced in the leads and you'll see where I'm coming from – it just sounds like a band playing on top of an asteroid, looking at the remains of their former planet." - The Grim Tower (Ratings: 8/10).
"The contrast between the booming bass piston in the engine room and the shimmering, shining, highly addictive melody that wafts over the top of the song like an aurora borealis is wonderful." - NO CLEAN SINGING
Necromance Digital Magazine (Ratings: 8/10)
TRUE METAL.IT (Ratings: 80/100)
"This is an excellent debut from a band who could easily go on to much bigger things." - The Sound Not The Word
"The mournful melodies Marianas Rest supplies, are extremely good, and leaves me perplexed and speechless. The only thing that surpasses the melodies is the overall mood. It puts me in a hypnotic state that feels as physically as a heavy vacuum or as a bath in pleasantly temperated cement." - Gorger Metal
Formed In: 2013
Status: Active
Years Active: 2013-Present
LINE UP
Harri Vainio - Bass
Nico Heininen - Drums
Nico Mänttäri - Guitars
Harri Sunila - Guitars
Aapo Koivisto - Keyboards
Jaakko Mäntymaa - Vocals
Location: Kotka
Genre: Melodic Doom/Death Metal
Current Label: Sliptrick Records
Homepage: http://marianasrest.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marianasrestofficial
Bandcamp: http://marianasrest.bandcamp.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/marianasrest
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdcCG_mNj82WjjExpiJEwVA
Horror Vacui (Full-Length Album - 2016)
Released October 22, 2016
Get The Album At:
Bandcamp: https://marianasrest.bandcamp.com
Levykauppa Äx (Finland Only): http://äx.fi/P493936
