Search - Mantissa :: Mossy God

Australian band who were trying to fill a lot of potential

Paul Lawrence | Australia | 03/15/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Way back in the late 80's/early 90's there was an Australian band called Killing Time. After dramas with the fact that somebody else already had the name they called themselves Mantissa. After an 4 track EP entitled Rubys Mind big things were expected of this mob. They dropped the ball somewhat with their next EP - The Mandelbrat Set (spelling?).



Then they gave us this. The vocals by a dude called Adam are quite alright - and he was soundly tipped to be a focal point for the female fans. Nina, their bassist, really held up the bottom end of the sound and it's interesting that an Australian band should be using such prominent use of bass even before it became compulsory to do so during the grunge years.



What lets this particular release down is the lack of drive. Whether the band were gunshy or were hoping to make the charts and didn't want to be too heavy I just don't know. Perhaps it was having put out a couple of EP's and just not having the material.



I can't really discuss specific tracks here - I just can't separate the tracks in my mind enough to do so. One thing is for sure, the band tried hard and long and put out more albums but they never recovered their upwards momentum after this release left the local punters with cold feet."