Hanno Klänhardt comments: “Valhalla Hammering is one of those songs that we instantly fell in love with but never made it on the album last year. It’s one of those songs that you do not write to create an “instant classic” but much rather in order to entertain yourself as a songwriter. It’s about 7 minutes long but we really liked the concept of having the most catchy, on point songs all on the last Album so it never really found its place.
I actually already knew it most likely would not end up on the album when I was writing it. In fact I wrote it with the plan already in my mind to release it quite some time AFTER we would release Pain Is Forever And This Is The End in order to present something completely different as a next move. It’s always good to cause confusion.
The first two minutes are kinda a homage to our VERY early days when Doom as a genre was more important to us. You can hear that for instance on the last song of our first album. It’s a song called March Of The Crowes. People often said that slow SUPER heavy suited us well but we were also always very song orientated, so with Valhalla Hammering we accomplished the best of both worlds. Slow, heavy groove and a catchy, almost trippy hook. Also We have a freakin’ flute solo around 5 minutes in. This very well might be considered the highlight of our songwriting career.
The video for the song is just as trippy as the song itself. Based on a documentary by Amsterdam based artist Willehad Eilers aka Wayne Horse. Creating the footage was way beyond a regular video shoot and to be quite frank some of it better not be explained any further. Even if we wanted to, we can’t. Enjoy the ride.”
Founded in 2012, Mantar stands among the leading forces in extreme metal within the last ten years. Loved by fans and press alike, the band took the world by storm with their truly unique sound, leading them to the Top 10 in the official German album charts with 2018’s The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze and sold out shows throughout Europe.
Mantar’s current full-length album, Pain Is Forever And This Is The End, was released via Metal Blade Records on July 15, 2022 and hit charts in the US and Europe including #2 Official German Album Charts, #43 Top 100 Swiss Album Charts, #60 Current Hard Music (Billboard USA), and #69 Top 75 Austria.
Earning critical accolades both stateside and abroad, Decibel Magazine hails a, “burning Molotov cocktail of black metal, sludgy hardcore, and classic metal hooks,” adding, “their latest studio album may be their best yet.” Rock Hard writes, “Pain Is Forever… skillfully keeps the balance between brute destructive fury and dense atmosphere in widescreen format with real underground hit potential,” while Metal Injection champions the band’s, “thicker grooves, anthemic refrains, head nodding rhythms and a greater exploitation of the fist-in-the-air-ology school of songwriting.”
Watch and Listen to Valhalla Hammering
