Cunning Mantrap
Dull Days

Cologne trio Cunning Mantrap are setting up a trap with their first little album, a trap to capture someone to take over the microphone from Phry with a PH who thinks focusing on the guitars would suit him and the band better. The trio recorded this little album and did more or less everything with it and they did record it live in the studio over a weekend. They selected six tracks they had in their catalogue, one is an intro and the last one is instrumental the four with vocals are selected to suit the voice of Phry. So the question comes to wether or not this cunning mantrap will work, will they snare a new singer?

That is a good question, I have not seen any such news since this album was released back in June but I don’t read facebook so they might have said something there. Anyways, the style is groovy a bit progressive with the feel of classic hard rock of the seventies. They list bands like Led Zeppelin, Guns’n’Roses and Alice in Chains as their influences and that feels about right even if there aren’t really any obvious signs of the middle name in their music. Good singer I think. Catchy melodies, good variation and depth while the album is still easy to take in. The sound is also good and in my opinion they do not really need a new singer as they have one that fits the task really well already.

It is just around 20 minutes of music but those minutes are great. I think that their music does what it is supposed to and any singer hearing this while still unemployed would probably jump at the chance to take over the microphone from Mr Phry. I think that this album has no real weakness and that the trio clearly show that they are very capable and probably have a bright shining future ahead of them cunningly mantrapping listeners all over the place. I think they have the potential to appeal to anyone, no matter the musical preference.

I think that there are only good tracks on this little album but that the best ones are the third track Eyes on the Sky and the fifth Options which are great tracks that many bands would be proud of. If I were to complain just shortly I would say that placing the instrumental track last was a small mistake, not that it is bad but it doesn’t quite fit to end an album. But other than that I think it is easy to be snared by this cunning trap and realise that dull days are somewhat improved when listening to good music. Lets hope for many bright days for these guys.

HHHHHHH