Born out of the ashes of Danish trash metal band Fear Itself. The Larsen brothers then formed Manticore in 1996, and then shortly began calling themselves Manticora. This progressive power metal band is among the best. With their solid releases (especially 8 Deadly Sins;)) these guys are surpassing those before them! They have released 6 albums the lastest being the two part Black Circus. The only band these guys even sound remotely like is Blind Guardian. If you have heard of this excellent band, please tell me what you think!

Great band, I bought The Black Circus both parts lst week when I saw they will be support to King Diamond on next tour

Really like their sound and style, great metal, with many influences, especially like speed metal parts

Unfortunately I heard only The Black Cicrcus albums, but I am looking forwarrd to buy other albums and fill my collection with this great band

Written by APOHAKC on 14.07.2007 at 23:44

Great band, I bought The Black Circus both parts lst week when I saw they will be support to King Diamond on next tour

Really like their sound and style, great metal, with many influences, especially like speed metal parts

Unfortunately I heard only The Black Cicrcus albums, but I am looking forwarrd to buy other albums and fill my collection with this great band

If you buy any more albums I strongly recommend 8 Deadly Sins! In my eyes it is a masterpiece! I suppose I should of been more exact on their genre, they are more of a Progressive Power/Speed metal band! I wish they would support King Diamond (god) on his North American tour in which I do believe I am going to see him!

I'll do that. Well, Manticora is definetely going to support King Diamond (God indeed), but I heard that whole tour is canceled because he had some back problems. about genre, well, I noticed on these two albums much prog and power influences but sometimes their riffs and bass-drum section remind me on old speed metal days. I also like whole trip around these two albums, the whole circus thing and songs sorted by letters, awesome, along with good covers. I also read some reviews and it seams that other albums are even better rated than these two

I have 8 Deadly Sins...great album. A really good solid mix of progressive and power with some quality vocals. I also have their first EP Dead End Solution. It's not as good...they're still a little "untrained" on that release.

ahhh this is such a great band. one of few that write excellent themed albums. i bought 8 deadly sins in '05 when it was first released, and i still listen to it a good bit.

I bought 8 Deadly Sins after seeing them supporting Angra in 2005. It's an excellent album, full of great songs ("Creator Of Failure" for example) with amazing vocals. Somehow though, I've never listened to the rest of their discography.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that Lars Larsen is certainly the biggest poser I've ever seen live. He poses even more than Andy Kuntz, which is quite an achievement. He certainly makes Manticora's shows very entertaining

actually, creator of failure is my personal favorite on that album.

i've never seen them live, or any of their music videos for that matter. i'll have to check out some of their videos on youtube when i get home.

Extremely underrated band! Their stuff up to "Darkness with Tales to Tell" is power metal with speed metal influences, pretty basic, but of high quality nonetheless. It was when they started doing concept albums when they became really good. "Hyperion" is awesome progressive power/thrash metal, probably the heaviest album of their career and one of the few albums I've rated with a 10 here on MS. Especially the neckbreakers "Cantos" and "A Long Farewell" are great, the latter standing out in particular with its 2-3 minutes guitar-keyboard solo duel. "8 Deadly Sins", featuring Beyond Twilight's mastermind Finn Zierler on keys, is perhaps their most progressive work and brilliant as well; "Enigma" gotta be my favorite track from that one. The two parts of "The Black Circus" were quite a disappointment for me though as they've started drawing influences from other bands again (especially Blind Guardian) and sacrificed a bit of the Manticora's own sound and soul. I just hope they haven't jumped the shark yet and get back to where they were with their two middle albums.

Great band, I own all their albums (except the first ep). My favourite album is "Darkness with tales to tell".... Great music, awesome vocals (like it or not)....

Cool...another prog power band to check out...thanks you guys...always looking for these kind of bands...

Written by b0000mst1ck on 28.09.2007 at 11:48

actually, creator of failure is my personal favorite on that album.

i've never seen them live, or any of their music videos for that matter. i'll have to check out some of their videos on youtube when i get home.

Creator of failure is indeed a great album, I also never knew they had any music videos, I'll have to check them out too, also I must say I very much love your avatar.

Written by Guest on 22.10.2007 at 09:35

Written by b0000mst1ck on 28.09.2007 at 11:48

actually, creator of failure is my personal favorite on that album.

i've never seen them live, or any of their music videos for that matter. i'll have to check out some of their videos on youtube when i get home.

Creator of failure is indeed a great album, I also never knew they had any music videos, I'll have to check them out too, also I must say I very much love your avatar.

they have quite a few live videos on youtube, but i'm not sure about actual videos though.

and thanks about the avatar. it's true!

This weekend I had the luck of meeting Kasper Gram at ProgPower Scandinavia and got a picture as well

Wow I haven't been here in forever, I finally added more of their stuff to my collection, for Xmas I received both black circuses and hyperion

@MaidenVarius: nice X-mas presents...are they good or just avarage (they can't be bad for sure)?

Written by GT on 16.01.2008 at 11:51

@MaidenVarius: nice X-mas presents...are they good or just avarage (they can't be bad for sure)?

You mean to say you don't know Hyperion? Dude, that's absolutely their best album! Just download the song "A Long Farewell" somewhere and you'll find out what you've been missing all the while.

Written by Promonex on 16.01.2008 at 18:14

Written by GT on 16.01.2008 at 11:51

@MaidenVarius: nice X-mas presents...are they good or just avarage (they can't be bad for sure)?

You mean to say you don't know Hyperion? Dude, that's absolutely their best album! Just download the song "A Long Farewell" somewhere and you'll find out what you've been missing all the while.

Yeah I haven't heard it yet...it's impossible to find here and I keep forgetting to order it online. But I'll check "A Long Farewell" out asap

Written by GT on 16.01.2008 at 11:51

@MaidenVarius: nice X-mas presents...are they good or just avarage (they can't be bad for sure)?

Well lets just say it was a wonderful x-mas!! I was able to get them all from amazon.com!

Totally forgot to mention that I finally bought Hyperion...and yes it's a killer album

Written by GT on 11.03.2008 at 20:46

Totally forgot to mention that I finally bought Hyperion...and yes it's a killer album

Hyperion is an awesome album! Dive into the greatness that that album is! Such an original band, I mean honestly I can't compare them to anyone!

Thought it was about time to revive this thread. I'm still totally hooked on Hyperion...it's just such a great album. They played near me not long ago, but I missed it unfortunately