Alien Ant Farm - "Mantras"
"We WILL make good original music!"
Alien Ant Farm is a wildly interesting band to cover. For a few reasons:
They’ve been active for about 25 years now, but only have six albums out in that time frame – including this one.
They are, definitively, a one-hit-wonder band, despite their positive early reception.
That one-hit-wonder was a cover – of a Michael Jackson song – which completely blows the original out of the water.1
The cover was born from the guitarist playing the riff live, which the audience went nuts for. The band worked out the full cover, made a video with a ton of MJ references, and then got Jackson’s approval for the video.
Unfortunately for the rising Nu/Alt Metal stars, Nu Metal started declining in popularity – sharply – shortly after the cover vaulted them into the spotlight, leaving the band to sink back into relative obscurity along with the genre. This led to nine year gaps between releases for albums 4-6,2 and the band’s second major lineup change shortly before their fifth album, with founding bassist and keyboardist Tye Zamora leaving the band and being replaced by Tim Peugh (who, noticeably, is only a bassist).
With all of this history, Alien Ant Farm are obviously coming into Mantras (stylized in some places as “~mAntras~”) with the overwhelming sense that they have something to prove. That is, frankly, the entire reason why this release caught my eye. Like most listeners, their cover of “Smooth Criminal” is the singular reason why I know the band’s name. And no band, no musical artist of any genre, wants to be known solely for a reinterpretation of somebody else’s song, no matter how good it is. That’s not why musicians spend their whole lives honing their craft.
Nobody steps into the spotlight in pursuit of mediocrity.
And Mantras, thankfully, starts off on the right foot with “The Wrong Things” and “Last dAntz”, which are both very solid tracks, then picks the banger baton up again on “Storms Over” and “So Cold”. Other songs, like “Prosperous Futures”, for example, get close, but ultimately feel like there’s just something missing, or maybe something just needs to be tweaked.
While I, admittedly, have had a rough couple of months in the energy/motivation department, Mantras has not helped itself out here. While Nu Metal might be seeing a bit of a resurgence or ‘revival’, as Louder Sound’s review put it, a core blend of Nu and Alt Metal is just not interesting. Even when it’s spiced with tinges of Alt Rock and Pop Punk. Even when the band is still technically talented.
Mantras isn’t a bad listen, but it also doesn’t convince me to stay focused on it very well (especially in the second half), much less come back for more.
It is what it is, and it’s not an album which breaks them out of the shadow of their own success covering a Michael Jackson song.
Rating: Yellow
This is an admittedly subjective take, but I am not alone; and the fact that there is even a discussion on the subject with a Michael Jackson song shows just how good the cover is. Also, when you search for the song in Spotify, the AAF version comes up on top.
The entire second half of Alien Ant Farm’s discography is three albums separated by 18 years: Up in the Attic (2006); Always and Forever (2015); and ~mAntras~ (2024).