Manafest: Fighter album review

Known for mashing up hard rock with rap, Chris Greenwood, aka. Manafest, finds himself facing an identity crisis of releasing mainstream vs. non-mainstream music on his seventh studio album, Fighter.

See, when Manafest throws down electronic beats with heavy rock guitar riffs, and raps the ever-haunting lyrics, “Can't escape, I’m a wreck, I can't sleep/Can't stop drinking, haven't slept in 3 weeks” as demonstrated on Throw It Away, it’s quite clear that Manafest is in his own unique musical world.

For myself, it was a great breath of relief to know that there’s still original music being released in 2012 – sadly, until Manafest decided to remove rap from his genre repertoire. To name a few, songs like Heart Attack and Human lack Manafest’s signature rap techniques, resulting in these songs blending in too easily with the modern hard rock that’s already released today, which gives a handful of the songs on Fighter a “been there; already heard that” feeling.

Essentially, Fighter is an energetic, loud release by Manafest, but it’s quite evident that Manafest’s bane comes when he steers clear of what he does best and tries to venture out into the world of mainstream, radio play hard rock.

Colton Hordichuck
Contributor