This Australian wrecking machine seems to have come out of nowhere as far as I can tell, I’ve not been able to find any useful information on this band of brutal, aural terrorists, other than that they hail from Brisbane. `Prolonging The Pain’ appears to be their first official release, although you certainly wouldn’t know that by listening to it. To my ears they sound like seasoned death metal veterans; such is the effectiveness of their bludgeoning musical rampage.
Laceration Mantra (which I think is an excellent name!) have successfully managed to capture something which has been sadly lacking from a lot of modern death metal – genuine savagery. Rather than following the latest over-produced trend, or attempting that controversial genre `tech-death’, these guys have created a beast of an album which will not only send the `old-school’ fanatics into misty-eyed nostalgia, but also genuinely excites and brutalises as you would expect a good death metal album to.
The production suits their style of music perfectly; it is dark, churning, noisy and totally crushing, but without being a total mess. All instruments can be heard clearly enough to convey the sense of aggressive annihilation, listening to this album on headphones is akin to having someone punch you directly in the eardrums.
Vocals are delivered in a multi-layered blast of pure evil fury, and for the most part are fairly clear (although sometimes the layers make it a little hard to follow), and always amazingly visceral. Rob Rjeff has a fairly diverse style, ranging from deep guttural growls, to throaty snarls and has clearly put a lot of work into his vocal attack, as well as the lyrics, which forsake the usual childish gore excesses, and cover darker, more introspective subjects.
The band also know how to write a riff. This really is a catalogue of punishing, dark and relentless riffing, and for a fan of brutal death metal there is huge amount of grisly joy to be found on the album. Each song contains several guitar-mangling gems, and is hugely enjoyable – Laceration Mantra really know how to balance out and out face-melting brutality with dark, heavy atmosphere. There are also some frenetic, well-played guitar solos scattered throughout; also something lacking from a lot of modern death metal.
The band have also blended in a satisfyingly nasty element of old grindcore, and lots of D-beat aggravation which really help the songs power along in a belligerent manner. All in all, this is one of the most effective `classic’ brutal death metal albums I have heard for a while, combining a lot of elements that made bands like Suffocation, Brutal Truth and other bands from the early death/grind scene.
My one main criticism (and it isn’t much of one) is that the songs aren’t all that memorable. That aside, this album totally and utterly conveys the classic brutal death metal feeling – dark, crushing aggressive and devastating. Fans of Suffocation’s first album, early Kataclysm and Brutal Truth will love this I am sure.
http://www.myspace.com/lacerationmantra
