Band:	Alien Ant Farm
Album:	Mantras
Style:	Alternative metal
Release date:	April 2024

01. The Wrong Things
02. Last Dantz
03. Fade
04. No. 1
05. Storms Over
06. So Cold
07. What Am I Doing
08. Prosperous Futures
09. Glasses
10. Everything She Wants
11. Mantras

Damn it, Jim, I'm a critic, not an entomologist.

Things haven't been the same down on the farm since white boys rapping over power chords was the predominant sound in the world of heavy music. Overcoming trials and tribulations like record label dramas, etching an existence beyond one hit wonder-dom and inter-band tensions, it is a surprise that Alien Ant Farm are still going in 2024, let alone releasing new music, but here we are. Mantras (stylized mAntras) is the perhaps the band's most mature offering to date, leaving behind youthful nu metal abandon for an alt metal sound that seems forged from the years of turmoil that have been wrought.

While Alien Ant Farm were caught up in the nu metal flood back when Y2K was considered recent history, they never really fit that sound and style, being nu metal-adjacent as opposed to reaching for the backwards red baseball hat-shaped crown. It should then come as no surprise that the nu metal sound is practically non-existent on mAntras; in its stead is an alt metal sound that is more Deftones than Disturbed.

This is evident from the opening chords of "The Wrong Things", a track that summarises much of what you can expect from the following forty minutes: namely a mid-paced affair that tries to expand rather than blow your mind. While this is likely to catch many off-guard, those familiar with the band (what are fans of Alien Ant Farm called anyway? Ant Farmers?) will recognise the sound that has made up a good portion of their back catalogue.

"What Am I Doing" is a catchy mid-paced fusion of alt metal and reggae that is more ska than Skindred, hooking you in with its choppy rhythm that you can't help but bop along to. "Storms Over" is a mellow number that crescendoes into an overdriven dirge at the end that somehow works and makes for a catchy number.

While Tye Zamora (the bass player in the band during their "Smooth Criminal" days) has not been a part of the band for a decade now, the band ensure that they have recruited someone who can hold up the low end just as well in the form of Tim Peugh. The only issue here is that the times that Peugh can really show off his skills are limited, robbing the band of an element that could have enhanced tracks like "last dAntz" from damn, to DAMN. This is the story of the album for all involved, truth be told, with songs like "No.1" giving only drummer Cosgrove any space to stretch their musical talents in any form.

It is telling that, while I don't particularly dislike anything on mAntras (with one exception), there is very little to really dig your teeth into; tracks pass by while never grabbing anything beyond passing interest. This is easily the biggest problem on the album, that being, well, that it is quite dull and boring, to not dAntz around the bush. This feeds into the previously mentioned issue of members not being able to stretch their musical muscles; the band play into their weaknesses instead of their strengths, to predictably poor results.

The title track is a biographical song regaling listeners to the band's past, containing references to their prior output; while this is an interesting concept that I have previously enjoyed (see Megadeth's "Victory" as an example of how it can work), it is done in a way that sounds like whoever created the sonic collage overdid the psychedelics, as the resulting mess is an incoherent blur of self-referential pieces melted together. Perhaps summing up the preceding 40 minutes well, it's good ideas poorly executed.

Well, for the Antzticipation, mAntras is unlikely to see the world get Antz in their pantz again anytime soon. A surprising release for sure, but one that will quickly fade away in short order.