Kev Rowland
Lord Mantis had actually split up following the death of drummer/founder Bill Bumgardner, but vocalist/bassist Charlie Fell and guitarist/vocalist Andrew Markuszewski decided get things going again. Guitarist Ken Sorceron of Abigail Williams had been a member on their last album ‘Death Mask’, and they also brought back honorary vocalist/member Dylan O’Toole of Indian as well as a new drummer in Bryce Butler. I have been reading various reviews about this album online, and they all seem to give it universal acclaim, so it is fairly obvious I am missing something as to me this fails on most accounts.
To describe this music is to say they have brought together elements of sludge, doom and black metal and produced something which to my mind manages to miss the highlights of any of those genres. I can understand what they are trying to achieve, but it is rare indeed that it actually accomplishes anything of note. There are bits and pieces here and there where the light shines on what is otherwise an impenetrable mess, but the fans seem to like it. They are trying to blend together very different styles indeed and move from one extreme to another without ever really capturing any solid ideas or anything different. There is just nothing here for me to get excited about and while it isn’t an awful record there isn’t actually contained within it that makes me want to play it more than I have had to so I could write about it and I am fairly confident I will never play it again.