2009 saw the birth of Chicago’s Lord Mantis with their debut record, Spawning the Nephilim, and they have proceeded to rise from the depths in the next five years, spreading their filth virally with every set of speakers they embrace. Throughout the years, they have displayed a very unique sound that melds the doomiest, most skull-crushing aspects of sludge metal with the atmosphere and intensity found in black metal.
Their malicious and offensive lyrics are coupled with their noisy and stomach-churning sound, which makes for some very inaccessible, yet almost euphoric, music. Their latest record, Death Mask, easily demonstrates Lord Mantis at their most primal and visceral, even as they continue to bend genres and push the envelope.
I first learned of Lord Mantis in 2012, as there was a lot of buzz concerning that year’s Pervertor. My mind was not prepared for the result of a quick YouTube search, a result that may have subliminally damaged my psyche. Lord Mantis always sound furious in their music, with some punishing drumwork, pulverizing riffs and extremely wretched and throaty vocals. I felt that they had one of the most unique and monstrous sounds that I had heard in a while, and their merciless sound definitely intrigued me. The sound of that album is best portrayed in the nine-minute-monster, Ritual Killer. Ritual Killer steadily builds the atmosphere and intensity without letting up at any point, and it demonstrates Lord Mantis at their most menacing.
This sound was further expanded upon with this year’s Death Mask, the aforementioned album which takes Lord Mantis’s sound to new heights. Possession Prayer introduces a heavy industrial influence that wasn’t commonly seen in their past work, and it adds quite a bit of flavor to the album and shows that Lord Mantis are willing to switch up their formula and experiment, one of Death Mask’s strongest points. Even the track You Will Gag For the Fix, despite its violent and suggestive title, is a steady three minutes of breathing room with a very subdued and quiet atmosphere. Being a much more multi-faceted and refined album, Death Mask is very interesting and just as hard-hitting as Lord Mantis’s two albums that precede it.
Lord Mantis are a very interesting group that have a steady balance of intensity and atmosphere, and are not afraid to search through different corners to find a sound that might not be ordinary for them, but will help them expand. Their music is disgusting, it is vile, it is offensive, yet it is still satisfying and very entertaining. You can purchase Death Mask here: http://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/death-mask
