Mangabros (Craig Manga and his skillful bandmates) have assembled a vivacious, Frankenstein-cobbled variant of their 2018 album, Shivacrowblack. (In truth, Shivacrowblack is the sister album of Soulcoalblack, and the combination comprises what's been coined The Black Album.) As it stands, Shivacrowblack's old and new parts have been juxtaposed, thus building a strident, revisionist playground for listeners.
As carryover nods, the tracks, "Malice in Kinderland" and "Tomboymilk," remain warm and jittery friends: bookends (in truth) that aren't situated at either end (though celebrated by the Mangabros core) and important in prompting their companion compositions, which have been torn from the same, tormented cloth.
We're talking tunes about being caught, of being accused, and in "'z' (Pink Frame)," "'z (Here I am, There You Are, Here We Are Together)" and the contemplative "Zapruderloop," things get real gentle and pretty (in both lyrics and vocals), taking the idea of violation to a fresh, (dis)heartening restart.
"Mancandy" reflects their beleaguered refrain, and though the composition works as an incidental sequel, it evades lamenting an outcast state by elevating one. It knows what it is, why it is and refuses to change. Its quality is all the harsher for it, and in that harshness, a sardonic euphoria bleeds.
There are other tracks that cut the same strand and do so in an arguable, Keroauc style, by setting their zeal to asphalt. The classic "Motorcycle Death Song (Hypercube/Psychomania RMX)" is a perfect case in point, as is "Kowalczyk," which begins with jagged, glitch chords, only then to crash and burn into giddy derision.
This destructive undercurrent, sometimes enacted fast and at other times slow, resumes in the annihilating "Sons of Sam"; the eerie, album prelude, "e Zekiel"; and the noir-ish "Semtexing." (Each is effective in bracketing the album's body.)
On the flip side, other examples are either dance-club or midway oriented, as in the manic "Mile-Long Club (Acid Trip)," the sloppy but tasty "The Ketchup Kid (Fogtrucker Zero)," the quick-to-the-draw "Semtexting (Microchip Junkie's Faded World RMX)" and the album's carny-topped masterpiece, "Mr. Pinch," which is sheer, seaside decadence. (If the Mickey Rooney headliner, Quicksand, were ever made modern, "Mr. Pinch" would be its perfect flavoring.)
Such varied yet connected tracks are what fans have come to appreciate from Mangabros. The album's arrangement needn't be taken as thematic, but more so therapeutic. It grazes deep levels of the human spectrum and settles in a place that, while doleful and judgmental, births one mighty damn mean mirth.
🛝
Shivacrowblack 2026 is available for immediate play at
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