Released April 26, 2024
Megaforce Records
Southern California four-piece Alien Ant Farm are back after 18 years with their latest album ~mAntras~. Formed in 1996 with singer/songwriter Dryden Mitchell, guitarist Terry Corso, bassist Tye Zamora, and drummer Mike Cosgrove, they independently released their quirky debut, Greatest Hits, toward the end of the ’90s and soon enough noise surrounded the band. The band’s biggest hit, being a cover of Michael Jackson‘s ‘Smooth Criminal‘ have developed their signature sound and are back again for one of the most anticipated releases of 2024.
The album begins with the track titled ‘The Wrong Things‘. While it isn’t the strongest we’ve heard from Alien Ant Farm, but it paves a good idea and direction of what they want the album to sound like. Frontman Dryden Mitchell starts the album with his undistinguished emotion that listeners have familiarised themselves with from their previous releases. Following is the album’s strongest track ‘Last dAntz‘, featuring a chorus that is going to be belted for years to come, incorporating some backing vocals to really emphasise the lyricism:
“I don’t want to dance with the dead alone, and be just another ghost on the radio”
Unfortunately, having the strongest track so high up in the album suggests that Alien Ant Farm have not moved away from their former identities as ‘one hit wonders”. The rest of the album sounds like a watered-down version of themselves from the late 90s.
‘Glasses‘, the 9th track on the album takes a different turn, being more like an acoustic ballad, flipping the rest of the album on its head. It’s nice to see a band so successful in the 90s experiment with different sounds and genres within an album.
Finishing the album off is title track ‘~mAntras~‘, a slower melodic track compared to the rest of the album. They’ve taken a really creative approach in closing out the album, introducing organs which ideally gave it a ceremonial closing feel.
Sonically, ~mAntras~ unmistakably is Alien Ant Farm, but that is as far as it reaches. There’s strong evidence of an attempt to evolve in their creative process and is a good start for future releases yet to come. ‘Last dAntz‘ will definitely find its way into many listeners’ musical rotations, but I unfortunately can’t say the same for any of the other tracks.
Rating 5/10
Review by Connor Lane
Listen to ~mAntras~ on Spotify here
Alien Ant Farm – ~mAntras~ tracklisting:
1. The Wrong Things
2. Last dAntz
3. Fade
4. No. 1
5. Storms Over
6. So Cold
7. What Am I Doing
8. Prosperous Futures
9. Glasses
10. Everything She wAnts
11. ~mAntras~
