Montag Mania

Montag Mania

Montag Mania is a group from Salem, United States, active since 2004 and centred on Nate Myers. It works in ambient, black metal and doom metal, and is also described in relation to USA black/doom metal and ambient music.

Releases

The group’s debut album, Piraya, is released in 2006 and is recorded in Stockholm and Lima, Peru. The record receives positive reviews in Dagens Nyheter and Eskilstuna-Kuriren. The title track is selected to represent Sweden at the Europavox festival in France, and it also appears in the film Made In Yugoslavia by Miko Lazic, which is released in Sweden and Serbia.

Its second album, Tropical Birds, is released in 2013. The album is written during recording sessions in Kreuzberg in Berlin, Stockholm and Tornedalen in northern Sweden. It is described as an ambient dance record with tropicalia and afrobeat elements, and as a musical blend of different times and places, with improvisation, accidents and recorded performances on tape.

Reception and performances

The release party for Tropical Birds, titled “Tropical Birds Party”, takes place at Kägelbanan in Stockholm with Faunafest and Candyland. The event draws 450 people and combines art, sound and light. Tropical Birds receives five out of six stars from Gaffa, and the single “Into the Highlife” reaches number one on Swedish Collegeradio’s toplist. The album also appears in Claes Olson’s Best Right Now list at Musikindustrin, and the New York blog Joy Of Violent Movement describes it as a warm and playful mix of indie rock, dance music and tropicalia.

After touring in Denmark and Russia, the group returns to Sweden and continues a summer tour there, ending with a performance at Kulturfestivalen / We Are Stockholm on 13 August.