Lord Mantis – “Spawning The Nephilim” [Album Review]

According to the bands bio “Spawning The Nephilim embraces hell and wallows in it.” Dissonance and discordance abound on the newest release from Lord Mantis, Spawning The Nephilim. This disc is inexorably heavy and dishes out a brutal bludgeoning from beginning to end.

Production wise this Spawning The Nephilim is muddy as hell and at times it is difficult to make out the various instrumentation amidst the overpowering distortion and the screaming, almost irritating vocals of Charlie Fell, especially on the title track Lord Mantis, which quite honestly was difficult to listen to and gave me a bit of a headache.

Lyrically the band spews forth a mixture of venom, bile and evil that again is a bit much for me. I have said it before, but there seems to be a trend among some bands to try and push the envelope on what is considered music. I believe this might be the case with Lord Mantis. Everything seems to be pushed to the extreme, the distortion, the screaming, the lyrical content and even the grotesque jewel case artwork that the band describe as a “gruesome vision of netherworldly reproduction.”

I am not sure what that really means, but I am sure that this CD is not for me. If you are a fan of extreme metal, you may dig this, but if you are like me and demand a bit of coherence and sensibility to your music, or at the very least, like to be able to make out what is going on, than steer clear of this one.

Track Listing:

01. Push Tug Wipe
02. Unnatural Dwarfism
03. Lord Mantis
04. Spawning The Nephilim
05. Abducted By Aliens
06. Hit By A Bus
07. Zealot

Run Time: 34:32
Release Date: April 28, 2009