Surprised no one has been creative enough to find a tag for Sanford Parker-produced, Chicago-based, sludge metal bands
. As if there aren’t enough to begin with, here comes Lord Mantis with their sophomore effort,Pervertor, and it bears a like-minded approach to other Windy Cindy tenants like Lair of the Minotaur, Indian, and Parker’s own Minsk. At this juncture, it’s a toss-up determining if this is a good or bad thing…these bands just like it loud, and are dangerously close to be too uniform in execution.
With its core membership doing time in the likes of Nachtmystium, Avichi, and Von, one can sense an underlying black metal influence. As such, Lord Mantis do it sludge-style by slowing their riffs and tempos down and running them through the slow-motion grinder. The occasional uptick in tempo happens on “At the Mouth” and “The Whip and the Body,” two songs that are placed at the tail-end of the album’s tracklisting.
For the better part of Pervertor’s (such a creepy title) duration, Lord Mantis hunkers down with thick and crispy riffs that because they are thrust into a harsh-sounding mid-tempo pace, are for lack of a better term, ugly as they can possibly be. That doesn’t stop the brooding “Pervertor of the Will” or lengthy “Ritual Killer” from doing as much damage as they possibly can. Of course on the flipside, some of these songs are exciting as watching the proverbial grass grow.
Lord Mantis are a victim of the swell of like-minded bands who fancy distortion overload to melody; ugliness to beauty; and aren’t doom, but aren’t sludge either. Pervertor is a bonafide ugly metal album, made by dudes who are probably just as ugly. And good thing metal isn’t a beauty contest – Lord Mantis would probably come in last. Methinks they wouldn’t have a problem with it either…
(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)