Release Date: May 07th 2025. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD
Fragments Of Time - Tracklisting
1.Fragments Of Time... 02:03
2.Valley Of The Gods 08:08
3.Forgotten Songs & The Colossus 07:02
4.Black Mountain 09:15
5.The Machine Rolls On 04:47
6.The Waking Eye 05:47
7.Cassiopeia 12:14
8....Scattered Across an Ageing Cosmos 01:56
9.All Vultures Wait [Bonus Track] 04:09
Members
Thomas Vanhatalo - Vox/Guitars/Keys
Tara Vanhatalo - Bass
Thibault Guezennec - Drums
Additional Musicians
Lead guitar on "Valley Of The Gods" written & performed by Thomas Carasso
Lead guitar on "Black Mountain" written & performed by Yoann Matsuzaki
Additional vocals on "Valley Of The Gods" & "Black Mountain" by Paul Tricot
Review
MANIARD is a Psychedelic Doom/Stoner Metal band from France who originally formed in 2013 where the band released their debut EP - The Doomsday EP when they were still in their late teens. Fast forward twelve years and MANIARD return with their haunting and spaced out EPIC debut album Fragments Of Time. With a fractured concept that allows the band to draw upon influences such as Mastodon, SLEEP, MONOLORD, Electric Wizard and Baroness for a sound that’s full of cinematic wonder and bone-crunching progressive FUZZ METAL heaviness.
The record feels like all of the tracks have been broken down into individual jigsaw pieces and it’s upto the listener to put the whole story and narrative structure into the correct order. There’s moments of THRASH based grooves that come flying at you unexpectedly with a richly observed Prog Sludge Metal style of music developing within the early stages of the record especially on the hard hitting track Valley Of The Gods. Though MANIARD opt for a Post Rock / Post-Stoner style that gives a brief glimpse into their Psychedelic limits and laidback attitude which they play on multiple parts of the record.
There’s an ever increasing dependency on Ambient Textures, Shamanic Vocals and Droned Out guitars when MANIARD decide to let their ferocious Sludge/Stoner Metal sounds take a well deserved break at times. However, for the most part, Fragments Of Time is an absolute rager with heavy technical sludgy instrumental passages that evolves into a style of music that made MASTODON famous back in their early years.
The shorter tracks on Fragments Of Time is where MANIARD transform into a Post-Rock / Post-Stoner musical entity where they blend cinematic synths and haunting keys with a very calm attitude with small amounts of Sludge/Stoner Metal aggression appearing especially on The Machine Rolls on, …Scattered Across An Ageing Cosmos and All Vultures Wait. There’s a sense of COSMIC wonder on these tracks which still retains a heavy Post-Doom / Space Rock attitude.
MANIARD develop and explore their heavy progressive melodies on the longest and standout tracks such as Valley Of The Gods, Forgotten Songs & The Cosmos, Black Mountain and Cassiopeia. The Prog Metal element is quite varied and superbly technical with MANIARD bringing a multitude of different distorted styles, rhythms and intense melodies with Thomas Vanhatalo being the main vocalist though there is a superb guest appearance from Paul Tricot on Valley Of The Gods and Black Mountain. There’s superb interplay between the two different styles but Thomas impresses the most and he absolutely kills it on Guitars and Keys duties as well.
Tara Vanhatalo is an absolute force of unstoppable nature on bass with a highly intelligent style developing that’s both brutal, primal and refreshing uplifting within the quieter moments. Rounding up the band is Thibault Guezennec on drums with a richly observed “LESS IS MORE” approach that reminds me of multiple drummers for the modern day Prog Sludge Metal scene.
Fragments Of Time is an album you need to listen to multiple times to fully experience the whole hypnotic effect as MANIARD inject some wonderful TOOL-esque complex time changes within their music where you wonder how they came up with a highly original idea such as that.
I bought this album ASAP after only listening to the first five minutes and I wasn’t disappointed by that decision as Fragments Of Time is the type of record that comes out of nowhere and demands your full undivided attention. The Sludge/Stoner Metal underground scene needs to take notice of MANIARD right away as this has the makings to be considered as one of the finest debut albums to be released this year.
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