Fuzz Manta comes from Copenhagen, Denmark and they describe their music as ’70’s hard rock with female vocals. Opus II is the band’s second full length CD plus they also have two EP’s out. Their influences vary from artists such as Yes, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Robin Trower, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep. It does sound tempting, doesn’t it? Thoroughly enjoyed the impressive well-played opener Motumann; Man With No Face (definitely has a Uriah Heep-like feel and vibe to it); Quiet Monday that sort of maybe reminds me of, say, Heart; the eight-minute Lithia’s Box with its Black Sabbath-like guitar [Opus II only gets better with each play] and Turn Around. Then before this opus (no pun intended) draws to a close, I took in White And More, the powerful Corrosion and the eleven-minute Let Me Walk (very ’70’s-ish to say the least, as this track clearly displays the band’s heavy Zeppelin influence when Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham were having a blues moment). Very nice. Wanted to be sure and mention that I did hear a couple of songs from their first self-titled CD Fuzz Manta (’09) and I thought from at least those two cuts, that debut offering was just as good as Opus II – plus they have a third CD just out now titled Vortex Memplex where I saw on their own site that the CD’s last track runs over the thirty-minute mark.
Line-up: Lene Kjae Hvillum – vocals, Freddy Fuzz – guitar, Morten – bass and Pelle Fuzz Manta – drums. This was the personnel that I was able to find on the Internet, as I didn’t get a physical copy of Opus II – but only a download. I did contact the band through Facebook and they informed me that similar bands would be Witchcraft, Siena Root and Horisont. I’ve never even remotely heard of either of those bands but now it makes me want to later at least look them up. Also, I dug watching some live fan videos of Fuzz Manta on You Tube.
For more info, visit: http://fuzzmanta.com, http://www.myspace.com/fuzzmanta and http://www.magnificentmusic.de
Reviewed by Mike Reed