O.k in keeping with the theme of Nachtmystium affiliated based bands , it makes sense of go ahead and review Lord Mantis who holds bassist Charlie Fell and guitarist Andrew Markuszewski in it's ranks. this mean machine was touched on in one of my future of black metal diatribes, and while it's up for debate how cvlt as fuck Chicago's Lord Mantis reminds me of a more feral Today is the Day, they do rock your face in the most fierce manner possible.
Title like blackened sludge are tagged to the band but the churn of a song like "Septic Christ" seems to fast to be sludge. The drums on this songs have more attention to detail and relentless double bass, helps to defy the sludge label.
The guitar tone is more fuzzed and thick than what typically is thought of as black metal. But " Vile Divinity" is as majestic in it's gallop as any Immortal, OK maybe any is a tall order but it's worthy of rolling 20 sided dice over a bloody bible to. I hear a little Coroner in this one as well, so some German thrash thrown in, Sodom influence tends to be found in rawer thrashier black metal and this song sound more like Nachtmystium than most of the album. I imagine the session for this one came before " the silencing machine" but now listening to this post "Silencing Machine" I can hear how it influenced that album.
the vocals lower on "Levia" into a raspy narrative. the uncanny ambiance of the chords on this songs gives more credence to the black metal label. This songs seethes in it's restraint as the toms build.
"Ritual killer" captures the kinda of gargantuan lumber all of the djent Meshuggah clones would like to ape , but with out all of the mall metal connotations. They aren't content with just beating you with one type of riff nor to the have to blind you with solos to obscure the fact. What I suppose passes for solos are single note melodies that color the back ground rather than hog the spot light. The tempo shift in "ritual killer" alludes to " through sliver and blood" Neurosis, but for the most part this one is singular in purpose.That purpose is blunt force trauma.
Wolvhammer comes to mind at the start of "at the mouth", the like the syncopated vocal out burst when the hit the groove in this one . I also recognize more eyehategod influence and maybe even brutal truth, though if the truth be brutall told I had to have Ben in high school the last time I heard that band. About this point in th album is here the argument for melody and atmosphere in heavy music can be made, as this all starts running together and blast beat at the end adds to the blur.
The Acid bath unfolds on "the whip and the body" , the churn of this one is a slight variation, it could use some Dax Riggs crooning as th bark of the scalded dog loses some of the burn it started with. Like the blog I posted on sex and metal ,I think if you are going to look for it is entitled "now that's fucking metal" and sticking to the theory we are jack hammer dry humming like a dog for dominance rather Than pleasure and the solo at the end of this one isn't erotic.
I will give this one a six because the sheer venom it bites with at first is a lot of fun, but the incessant nature of its bite numbs out and like marathon masturbation it feels good but the grows less inspired the longing it beats you raw.
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