We’re proud to shed some light on the first MANES release under the Debemur Morti Productions banner.
The Norwegian multi-facial entity gathered a precious collection of 11 unreleased, obscure, alternate versions and hard-to-find tracks found in their archives and dating back to the time around the legendary albums „Vilosophe” (2003) and „How The World Came To An End” (2007).
This anthology will be titled „Teeth, Toes And Other Trinkets” and will be unleashed by the end of the year.
A few words from the band about this special release : „Before we truly come back to life with MANES, we figured we’d dig up some dead stuff for everyone to enjoy. This is a collection of odds and ends that on the surface might seem to appeal mostly to the most die-hard completist, but listening to it ourselves we find it works surprisingly well on its own. It is at times very lo-fi and not at all polished, but swamped in atmosphere and nostalgia, at least for us.”
::Biography::
epoch #1
manes was started by cernunnus in 1992, as a side-project to atrox (the band he was playing in back then) .. a few experimental lineups and concepts were tried out (perifa, obscuro), before manes settled as a two-man band, with sargatanas doing the vocal duties, and cernunnus doing everything else .. the first demo, „maanens natt” were released in 1993, the second one, „ned i stillheten” in 1994, and the third (and last) one, „til kongens grav de døde vandrer” in 1995.. because of various circumstances, not much happened until 1998/1999, when the debut album „under ein blodraud maane” were released by the dutch label hammerheart records.. after that album, cernunnus needed a long break from music and everything, until…
epoch #2
manes resurfaced in 2002, more or less as a new band.. new line-up, new musical style, new appearance.. the second album, „vilosophe” were released in 2003 by the italian label code666, to an unprepared audience.. this abrupt change and unexpected bahaviour have followed the band in everything they have done since.. manes played some gigs and festivals like inferno, hole in the sky, southern discomfort and quart, and shared a stage with bands like isis, katatonia, red harvest, theater of tragedy among others .. to finalize their commitment to aural music (the ‘mother’ label of code666), manes released the „[view]” ep in 2006 as an intermezzo between albums .. the year after, in 2007, manes released the web ep „deeprooted” and the album „how the world came to an end” via the uk label candlelight records .. this album further explored more of the negative spheres „vilosophe” had ventured, but saw manes as a more creative collective collabortaing with a diverse group of guests .. during the recording-sessions for this album, the next manes album were also taking form and pre-production for the upcoming „be all end all” were initiated in 2007/2008, but this took time and drained energy .. the reviews for „how the world came to an end” were good, and the band got a lot of attention, but no concerts were played in the wake of this release .. the band also released an „epoch#1” mini-album „solve et coagula” with kvarforth (shining) and malefic (xasthur) on vocals not long after, but manes faced a void and slowly dissolved, until ..
epoch #3
spring 2013 the band again resurfaced with new creative force .. the standstill for the manes activity was due to many factors like other priorities, health and family, and the associated manes members found time to devote to other bands and projects, many of whom were collaboration between two or more of the manes crew, like atrox, drontheim, lethe, kkoagulaa and chton .. 15 different manes web releases were also released in 2011, among these „overheated”, „deep north” and „roman shower”, and all of these with 4 or 5 tracks on each, and available for a limited time only .. in the summer of 2013 manes released a new track „blanket of ashes” online, and announced that the album „be all end all” finally will be released following a compilation album of obscurities and rare material called „teeth, toes and other trinkets”, both via the french label debemur morti ..
———-
current line-up:
tor-helge skei – guitars, computers
eivind fjøseide – guitars
torstein parelius – bass, lyrics, visuals
rune hoemsnes – drums
asgeir hatlen – vocals
previous members:
håvard jenssen – vocals
emil sporsheim – vocals
tor-arne helgesen – percussion
tommy halseth – vocals
contributors:
rune folgerø – vocals
wt – vocals
spaz – vocals
emily saaen – vocals
p emerson williams – guitars, synth, vocals
trine kolmannskog – vocals
flegmatical – gameboy
stein e bratland – vocals
cornelius jakhelln – lyrics
rachmiel – processing
rune sørgård – processing
niklas kvarforth – vocals, lyrics
malefic – vocals, lyrics
———-
discography
‘maanens natt’, demo (tape), 1993
‘ned i stillheten’, demo (tape), 1994
’til kongens grav de døde vandrer’, demo (tape), 1995
‘maanens natt’, reissue (cd), unveiling the wicked, 1999
‘ned i stillheten’, reissue (cd), unveiling the wicked, 1999
‘under ein blodraud maane’, full-length (cd/vinyl), 1999, hammerheart
‘vilosophe’, full-length (cd), 2003, code666
‘1993-1994’, compilation (vinyl), 2005, kyrck prod
‘[view]’, ep (cd), 2006, aural music
’til kongens grav de døde vandrer’, reissue (vinyl), 2006, faceless nameless ahapeless
‘svarte skoger’, compilation (cd/vinyl), 2006/2013, kyrck prod
‘deeprooted’, single (digital), 2007, candlelight
‘how the world came to an end’, full-length (cd), 2007, candlelight
‘reinvention’, ep (digital), 2008
‘solve et coagula’, mini-album (cd), 2009, kyrck prod
‘manes/manes’, split (vinyl), 2009, kyrck prod
‘vilosophe’, reissue (vinyl), 2010, kneel before the masters throne
‘under ein blodraud maane’, reissue (vinyl), 2011, ordo mcm
‘#418’ – ‘#403’, multiple ltd web releases (digital), 2011