originally written by Jim Brandon
Decadence and irreverence have never been in short commodity among metalheads, and I tend to think our beloved scene filters its audience at a fairly respectable pace. The hangers-on drop away and passing interests become obsessions, and most comforting is the fact that there really is no “Man” to sell out to anymore.
Some bands are hopelessly underground by nature, Lord Mantis being a prime example, as I really can never see a large audience forming for them or the particular trade they partake in. They’ll never be asked to produce a single or commercialize their sound. At times, such boundless freedom gets the better of them on their third full-length (and Profound Lore debut), Death Mask.
Musically speaking, the four-piece walks a path Coffinworm, Fistula and Dragged Into Sunlight similarly follow; a well-tread but structurally stable bastardization of black metal and sludgy doom with production that grinds it down to the nub. They’re not rushed, but they certainly make no attempts at subtlety, roughly mixing slow burning riffs with brief and sudden blasts of flailing speed, only to return and reduce their crawl to a near stop.
The leadoff rumble of “Body Choke” is a fair representation of what’s to come, carried by a chafing hardcore-esque growl belting out harsh lines by the dozen. It isn’t until later when the clean instrumental “You Will Gag For The Fix” introduces “Negative Birth” that we get a real breather for a few moments, and by this point a Today Is The Day vibe has thoroughly permeated the disc. Once the latter track finally rockets out of its chamber, the careening pace eventually runs its course and “Coil” abruptly shifts gears into disappointing sampling and spoken word distortion, which serves more as filler and less as weirdness.
Truthfully, Death Mask isn’t very out of the ordinary style-wise, but their riffs are fresh, their sound is very well conceived, and tunes like the slightly hard-rocking (and overly long) closer “Three Crosses” and the bi-polar title track are consistently caustic and suitably rude.
Therein lies the problem: Shock value and honesty have a propensity to cause confusion by their mere nature, where the bridge between a fictional narrative and a personal catharsis is short and impossible to step across lightly, with “Body Choke” being the most notable case of difficult lyricism:
A Waste since young was raped in the arms of mother
Wasted forever bent to whip of speed priest
I am the Raping nigger bend to whip of speed priest
Personally, I have no problem with the lyrics because it doesn’t feel like Lord Mantis is actively attacking anyone specific, and although I’m not thrilled with some of the subject matter, happiness isn’t a measure of approval or worth, ears are, and without a lyric sheet. But it also doesn’t make it right.
Encouraging an open mind is folly when it comes to this and so many other albums that say what they mean no matter who likes it. There is honesty here, but there are also a few flaws: With song placement, with interpretation, with originality, and with cognizance. There aren’t a lot of pieces to put together.
Death Mask is a crude, impactful, but ultimately non-mandatory exhibition of black-tar sludge that has its fair share of worth regardless of how off-putting it may be on the surface. At worst, it will give a lot of us something to think about, especially when considering the band itself has created so much heat by simply waiting for the pot to come to a boil.
