Mantah – Antidote
Release Date: 31st October 2025
Label: Polderecords
Bandcamp
Genre: Nu-Metal, Metalcore.
FFO: Korn, Static X, Dope.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Belgian Nu-Metal revivalists Mantah are back with their sophomore album Antidote. The band continue their mix of nu-metal worship blended with a modern metalcore flavour as they aim to take their sound to a bigger audience this time around.
It’s time to look out the Adidas tracksuits from the attic and tie your hair in dreads again because Nu-Metal is back, baby! Mantah simply doesn’t care if you want to play spot the influence with their album, because they are worn so proudly on their sequenced trackies for everyone to see. Do they unashamedly use Korn riffs? Yes. Is the vocalist aping Jonathan Davis and Wayne Static at every opportunity? Sure. Does that make this album any less fun? Absolutely not. Within seconds of the opening track start, you will get the entire vibe of this record. If you long for the days of bounce and watching Jeff Hardy dive from the top of ladders against his bodies’ better judgement, then look no further than Antiote. The album has a real WWE Pay Per View feel running across its 9 original tracks and is ready to be played loud to arenas full of people.
However, Nu-Metal nostalgia isn’t the only flavour in town, as Mantah also dabbles in more modern elements to varying degrees of success. In the early running order, guitarists’ Bart Vandeportaele and Dennis Wyffels owe a lot to the world of modern metalcore. There is a lot of lower chugging going on intercut with that bouncy Architects riffing style that modern bands can’t help but try. As the album progresses, the pair really come into their own, the lead work becomes far more integral track on track. The guitar solo on Going Down wouldn’t happen earlier in the record, while the triumphant guitar intro of Falling was lacking in the early stages of the album. While there isn’t a lot of individuality in the playing, the band set out to riff in a specific style, and they meet that requirement with ease. The riffs might be basic, but they are big and would whip a crowd into a frenzy with ease. Going Down has a riff that would fit on modern Korn records, while earlier tracks like Phenomenal are more in line with what acts like Bad Omens are currently getting up to.
While, for the most part, Antidote is a party album for people who love screaming “wazzup” down a landline phone, there are a couple of instances where the album switches things up. Fire starts with a heavy panic chord-laden riff but quickly switches more into a piano and lo-fi beat lead verse before picking back up in the second half, which follows is the inverse of the next track, which starts slowly but picks up pace as the band go on. Mantah are at their best when they’re throwing their weight around with obnoxious riffs and massive sing-along choruses. When they turn their hand at the slower and mid-tempo song, they feel aimless and almost tact on in a ‘that’s what radio stations want’ kind of way, which doesn’t suit the band’s strengths. On a similar note, they reserve their heavier passages for short bursts rather than really leaning into it, which is a shame because when the band goes heavy, it’s killer, especially vocalist Sven Herssens. When he lets his voice go and lets out those bellowing screams, it really fits against the band’s metalcore influence, but these moments are few and far between rather than ever really getting their moment to grow.
Mantah have really levelled up their sound from their debut album, the choruses are bigger, the riffs are bigger, and the songs are just better. The album hits a nice, sweet spot of nostalgia but still manages to sound modern. It will switch from an arena metal riff to a 90s novelty cover in Seal’s crazy. Antidote is a fun easy listening album that if the aim was to take this band into bigger venues and grab attention while on support slots then it has given the band a very good chance at achieving that goal. Yes, there is room for growth and space to let some individuality grow, but you can see the seeds the Belgians are planting and on their next go around hopefully they have continued to grow and can take those lessons into the studio. For now, though, wazzzzzzzup.
(4 / 5)
