BIOGRAPHY
In 1998 MANTICORA signed with Intromental Management and shortly afterwards their first record deal was signed with Greek record label Black Lotus. The same year the band added an extra guitarist, Flemming, and a keyboardist, Jeppe, to the line-up. The debut full-length disc, "Roots Of Eternity", was released in summer 1999, and received tremendously good response from both media and fans around the world.
2000 saw the band signing with the Italian record label Scarlet Records, and half a year later the next opus, the somewhat more melodic album, "Darkness With Tales To Tell", was released, and once again receiving great acclaim.
In 2001 the band also played at ProgPower Festival in Holland, and all looked good in the MANTICORA camp, when bassist Rene decided to leave the band to focus on his family. Kasper Gram was enrolled in the band as new bass player, and his young energy kicked the band into even higher gear. Along with the change of bassist came also the change of guitarist, as Flemming left MANTICORA and Martin Arendal joined the band.
In 2002 the band played a brilliant gig at the Sweden Rock Festival to a large screaming and headbanging audience. In the fall 2002 "Hyperion" was released. This was the so-far most wide-spanning work of the band; an epic concept album, based on the award winning sci-fi novel "The Hyperion Cantos" by Dan Simmons. The album was whole-heartedly embraced by fans and media worldwide, and with a European tour in spring 2003 (with label mates Platitude as support band) MANTICORA took another step up the ladder.
In early 2004 the band began work on their next disc, "8 Deadly Sins", yet another conceptual disc, this time about a man who, on his death bed, is reflecting on his past life and the decisions (right and wrong) that he has made and the sins he committed. The album was recorded in March/April 2004 in Jailhouse Studios with producer Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Pretty Maids, HateSphere, TNT etc.). The sound is incredible - an audio experience of the largest scale! Joining the band on this album is keyboardist Finn Zierler (Beyond Twilight, ex-Twilight), making the overall sound more eerie and progressive.
In early 2005 the band toured throughout Europe together with Angra and Edenbridge. The tour was a great success for the band and they made a lot of new fans and friends there. Joining the core of Lars, Mads, Kasper and Kristian was session-guitarist Stefan Johansson and Swedish keyboardist Andreas Lindahl. The band then did their first ever (highly successful) US appareance at the ProgPower Festival in Atlanta, GA (September 2005).
The band has just finalized its 5th full-length album, the first part of the 2-album concept "The Black Circus". Lyrically it deals with the horror story of a travelling circus in 19th century New England. Once again produced by Tommy Hansen, the album is bigger, better and more adventurous than ever before.
With "The Black Circurs Part 1" you get exactly what you could expect - a band evolving and fine-tuning all their best assets, be it the power metal side of their sound, or the dark/progressive mind. MANTICORA has never sounded better!
Manticora is a band where every person is allowed to bring forth his ideas. Where Lars, Kristian and Mads were the main-composers of Manticora's two first albums, all band members are now equal and all brings their ideas into the conglomeration of music that is Manticora!
In the music of Manticora you can find inspirations from such artists as Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Metallica, Jag Panzer, Helloween, Nevermore, Gamma Ray etc. This is Heavy Metal with capital letters … HEAVY METAL !!!
Reviews from journalists all over the World has had a hard time labeling the band, however all agree that Manticora is a unique band - a band with a great future ahead of them.
For Manticora the lyrical side of things are important as well - some might say that it is clichee to write about "darkness", "twilight", "eternity", "mist", "shadows" etc., but to Manticora it all comes down to one thing - setting the mood for some fascinating stories …
... yes, the darkness has some very interesting tales to tell ...