Manfish – What Is Manfish?

I had a hard time placing Manfish as I listened to their debut What is this Manfish? Their name references a largely forgotten piece of pop culture silliness. Their sound slides around, from the rawest raw of early Misfits to strangely composed electric tunes of the kind that bookend punk, with hard rock on the one end, and post-punk on the other. Given the album’s cobbled-together punk sensibilities its Finnish – you know, the Nightwish country – roots may come as a surprise. Forgive the preconceived notions, but this album’s lack of a moment of symphonic death metal may come as a surprise.

It takes about ten minutes for that surprise to dissipate. No American, British or Canadian group could so unabashedly reference foundational punk groups. Whether it takes a cultural ignorance of the sanctity in which this genre’s acolytes hold its deities, or a boldness to which other punks aspire, to lift wholesale from the founding years I cannot say. I know not the minds of Finnish punks.

To call this a bad album seems unfair to similarly brave and fun-loving groups from years ago who played with similarly uncoordinated grit. To call it a decent album would not only stretch the definition of that term but disregard the fact that the album only sounds good when it’s reminding the listener of territory carved out years ago. The value of this album is in the promise it makes in the aggressively old-school opening track, “die hippie die,” that of a silly album by fun-loving kids.

On much of the album this jolliness descends into outright amateurishness that punctures the layer of fun that makes What is this Manfish? bearable. “Why everything is so gay” fails to make its point and ineffectively blends arrhythmic lyricism poorly constructed guitar riffs. At the end of the album, “I hate you” takes like a prank played on the listener, the final challenge for an audience that has voluntarily submitted itself to the rest of the album.

Manfish has a good backup singer and instrumentalists who know what they’re doing, so I doubt this is the last we’ve heard of them. Some studio time may do them some good. It certainly couldn’t hurt.