Manticora is a progressive power metal band from Hvidovre, Denmark.

… Read Full Bio ↴Manticora is a progressive power metal band from Hvidovre, Denmark.

Manticora was formed in 1997 by Lars Larsen (vocals), Kristian Larsen (guitars) and Mads Volf (drums) – these three have made up the core of the band ever since. In the early days the band was a foursome with bass player Rene as the last member. Soon after the band recorded the now legendary mini CD “Dead End Solution”, which marked the beginning of the Manticora-trademark sound; hard hitting power metal with both epic and thrash elements.

In 1998 Manticora signed with Intromental Management and shortly afterwards their first record deal was signed with Greek record label Black Lotus. The same year the band added an extra guitarist, Flemming, and a keyboardist, Jeppe, to the line-up. The debut full-length disc, “Roots Of Eternity”, was released in summer 1999, and received tremendously good response from both media and fans around the world.

2000 saw the band signing with the Italian record label Scarlet Records, and half a year later the next opus, the somewhat more melodic album, “Darkness With Tales To Tell”, was released, and once again receiving great acclaim. In 2001 bassist Rene decided to leave the band to focus on his family. Kasper Gram was enrolled in the band as new bass player, and his young energy kicked the band into even higher gear. Along with the change of bassist came also the change of guitarist, as Flemming left Manticora and Martin Arendal joined the band.

In 2002 the band played a brilliant gig at the Sweden Rock Festival to a large screaming and headbanging audience. In the fall 2002 “Hyperion” was released. This was the so-far most wide-spanning work of the band; an epic concept album, based on the award winning sci-fi novel “The Hyperion Cantos” by Dan Simmons. The album was whole-heartedly embraced by fans and media worldwide, and with a European tour in spring 2003 (with label mates Platitude as support band) Manticora took another step up the ladder.

In early 2004 the band began work on their next disc, “8 Deadly Sins”, yet another conceptual disc. The album was recorded in March/April 2004 in Jailhouse Studios with producer Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Pretty Maids, HateSphere, TNT etc.). In February 2005 the band toured throughout Europe together with Angra and Edenbridge. The tour was a great success for the band and they made a lot of new fans and friends there. Joining the core of Lars, Mads, Kasper and Kristian was session-guitarist Stefan Johansson and Swedish keyboardist Andreas Lindahl. The band then did their first ever (highly successful) US appareance at the ProgPower Festival in Atlanta, GA (September 2005).

With Martin Arendal (guitars) returning to the fold instead of Stefan, the band once again went into studio, to record it’s 5th full-length album, the first part of the 2-album concept “The Black Circus”. Lyrically it deals with the horror story of a travelling circus in 19th century New England. The lyrics are written as letters from the main person in the story to another person. Once again produced by Tommy Hansen, the album is bigger, better and more adventurous than ever before. After a mini-European tour, alongside Andromeda, Manticora hit Jailhouse Studio to finalize the 2nd part of “The Black Circus”. With “The Black Circus Part 2” in their now extended catalogue, Manticora went on both European and USA tour, warming up for Jon Oliva's Pain, and another tour was booked for Europe in May 2009, as support band for Circle II Circle. This time, going through 16 countries for 21 shows.

In 2010 Manticora's 7th full length album was released worldwide. "Safe" was an even darker journey in the musical universe of Manticora. A European headliner tour was booked for October 2010, taking the band through nine different countries, with Norwegians, Divided Multitude as support act.

However, personal tragedy struck the band on several levels, and a band hiatus was agreed upon, allowing only for single gigs and festival shows to be played and no new material to be written.

In August 2012, Manticora finally performed at the world's largest metal festival - Wacken Open Air, and it lead to the band, re-opening the goodiebag of writing new material. April 2013, saw the band, playing the prestigious PPM festival in Belgium, and a month later, Martin Arendal played his last show with Manticora (a smaller Danish show).

The future of Manticora is to write the 8th album, and 2014 will most likely mean some international touring - with a new lead guitarist, who is yet to be discovered.

enigma
Manticora Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Psycho's, freaks, beggars and thieves
The circus comes to town
Ugly sick and unclean; Pretending
That it is your own
Silently withering from disease
In arrogance
I watch you struggle on your knees

So, go back to the cardboard city
To the gutter and to your self-pity
Your destroyed life and malfunctioning mind
I won't enrich a contaminated swine

I'm never going to pity
You, begging in the streets
Living life in dream mirage disorder
To fulfil your needs
Desperately holding on to a vanity
A distorted sanity

"Hope has always been a drug for the lost
But the shattered remmants of life kill
your enigmatic search
As you wake up, the harsh truth contaminates
you and destroys your vision of a better world"

So, go back to the cardboard city
To the gutter and to your self-pity
Your destroyed life and malfunctioning mind
I won't enrich a contaminated swine

I am still to solve the riddle
That shows itself all around
Disclosure of the fragile human nature
Failure's to be found
Stern and proud you bear your cross
Condemned to forever feeling loss

So, go back to the cardboard city
To the gutter and to your self-pity

Your destroyed life and malfunctioning mind
I won't enrich a contaminated swine

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Manticora's song "Enigma" explore the human condition and our relationship with those who are less fortunate. The song opens with a description of society's outcasts - the "psycho's, freaks, beggars and thieves" - and likens them to the arrival of a circus. The singer observes these individuals as they suffer in silence from various societal ills, including disease and poverty. Despite it all, the singer seems almost arrogant in his detachment from their struggle, watching from a distance as they continue to suffer on their knees.

As the song progresses, the singer grows increasingly critical of those he sees as "contaminated swine" and "dream mirage disorder" - people so steeped in their own self-pity and distorted view of the world that they cannot escape their own misery. In the final verse, the song takes a more introspective turn, acknowledging the singer's own failure and the inevitability of loss in the human experience. Despite the harshness of his views, the singer admits to still searching for answers - a solution to the "enigma" of life that constantly confronts us.

Line by Line Meaning

Psycho's, freaks, beggars and thieves
The outcasts of society are present

The circus comes to town
The spectacle of human suffering is put on display

Ugly sick and unclean; Pretending
People are putting on a facade of well-being when they are really in a state of decay

That it is your own
They pretend that their current situation is a result of their own choices

Silently withering from disease
People are slowly deteriorating physically and mentally without a voice to speak up about it

In arrogance
The singer watches these people suffer with a sense of superiority

I watch you struggle on your knees
The singer observes their suffering without offering any help or compassion

So, go back to the cardboard city
The artist tells these people to return to the streets where they can suffer without being a burden

To the gutter and to your self-pity
The artist accuses these people of wallowing in their own misery

Your destroyed life and malfunctioning mind
The artist declares that these people are broken beyond repair

I won't enrich a contaminated swine
The singer believes these people are beneath them and does not want to offer any assistance

I'm never going to pity
The artist declares that they will never feel any sympathy for these people

You, begging in the streets
The singer refers specifically to those who are reduced to begging to survive

Living life in dream mirage disorder
The singer believes that these people are living in a fantasy world to escape their harsh reality

To fulfil your needs
The singer believes that these people are selfish and only care about themselves

Desperately holding on to a vanity
The artist believes that these people are trying to cling to their dignity even though it is lost

A distorted sanity
The artist believes that these people are not in their right mind due to their harsh living conditions

"Hope has always been a drug for the lost
The singer begins to reflect on the idea of hope and how it affects those who are suffering

But the shattered remmants of life kill
The singer believes that hope is not enough to save these people from their bleak circumstances

your enigmatic search
The artist believes that people are constantly searching for a way out of their despair, but never finding it

As you wake up, the harsh truth contaminates
The artist believes that people will eventually realize that their situation is dire and cannot be fixed easily

you and destroys your vision of a better world"
The artist believes that hope only leads to disappointment when reality sets in

I am still to solve the riddle
The singer admits that they are still struggling to make sense of the suffering they observe

That shows itself all around
The artist acknowledges that the suffering they observe is pervasive and ever-present

Disclosure of the fragile human nature
The singer believes that suffering reveals the vulnerability and fragility of human existence

Failure's to be found
The singer believes that suffering ultimately leads to failure and defeat

Stern and proud you bear your cross
The singer acknowledges the strength and resilience of those who are suffering

Condemned to forever feeling loss
The artist acknowledges that those who suffer are never truly free from their pain and hardship

Contributed by Madelyn E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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