UMUR "Maniaxe" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, California based death/thrash/grindcore act Ghoul. The album was released through Razorback Recordings in June 2003. It´s the successor to "We Came for the Dead!!!" from 2002.

Stylistically "Maniaxe" is a continuation of the death/thrash/grindcore style of "We Came for the Dead!!! (2002)", but "Maniaxe" features a better quality sound production and more memorable songwriting. The music and especially the vocal style are strongly influenced by early Carcass, although Ghoul generally focus more on heavy death/thrash oriented riffs and less on blasting grindcore parts compared to the early output by the Liverpool legends. So while there are strong smiliarities there are enough differences too for Ghoul not to come off as a complete clone band...they are huge Carcass worshippers though and not ashamed of it either.

"Maniaxe" opens with "Pleasant Screams / Forbidden Crypts", and it doesn´t take long to know what kind of an album this is. It´s well played, well produced, but also slightly one-dimensional in style. The cover of Louie Armstrong´s "What a Wonderful World", which closes the album, is the track which stands out the most, and other than being a bold choice for a cover, it´s quite entertaining listening to a punked death metal version of the famous song. Despite being a bit one-dimensional in style, the original material are well written too, and individually the tracks are all powerful, raw, and relatively varied with both tempo changes and even the occasional melodic moment.

So upon conclusion "Maniaxe" is a quality sophomore album release by Ghoul. It´s not the most original sound that the band produce but the delivery is both passionate and convincing, and as written above the material are well written too. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.