Heavy metal by its very nature is transgressive. The genre embraces the darkness of human nature in a way that no other musical style has ever done. At its best, heavy metal urges the listener to question commonly help beliefs about the world he or she inhabit, while at its worst it mindlessly pushes the boundaries of good taste. Still, there's plenty of room under the umbrella of heavy music for iconoclastic works like Behemoth's The Satanist as well as tasteless juvenalia like Prostitute Disfigurement's From Crotch To Crown. The artistic merit of the latter band may be questionable, but the grotesquely confrontational nature of their music is useful as a gateway to conversations about misogyny in the same way that Behemoth's new album can jumpstart conversations about theology and philosophy. All music, even the ugliest of the ugly, can entertain as much as it can promote conversation; and music doesn't get much uglier or provocative than Lord Mantis's new album Death Mask.
Even before anyone outside the band and their label, Profound Lore, had heard a note of Death Mask, the album had already stirred up contention. The cover art, created by Leviathan's controversial mastermind Jef Whitehead, was seen by some as violently transphobic, and without being provided any context it's easy to see why. But, through interviews, the band's vocalist and bassist Charlie Fell explained the meaning behind the artwork and attempted to dispel the idea that the band harbors ill will toward anyone but themselves.
Now that Death Mask has been released into the world, the album's music will undoubtedly prove as polarizing as its art. Lord Matis have created one of the ugliest slabs of sonic hate in the history of heavy music, and, while this is a great album in many respects, there are plenty of people who will rightfully choose to avoid it. This is a hard album to listen to; all of the songs on Death Mask are oppressively abrasive and lyrically uncompromising. The opening song "Body Choke" features a line where Fell refers to himself as "the raping nigger" which is an unequivocally repulsive term for a white male to use, metaphor or not. The next track, the titular "Death Mask," ends with Fell screaming at the listener, "fuck you, suck me." It's doubtful that Fell or anyone else in the band are racists that condone rape, but, as with the album's artwork, the lack of context makes the listening experience uncomfortable at best, and almost certainly a deal breaker for some people.
However, if you can stomach the horrendous lyrical subject matter and are looking for the audio equivalent of A Serbian Film, Death Mask won't disappoint. Those familiar with Lord Matis's previous releases, 2009's Spawning the Nephilim and 2012's Pervertor, already know what to expect. But this time around, the band has added a healthy dose of industrial noise to their unique mixture of blackened sludge. The industrial influence varies from track to track – "Negative Birth" features a nominal amount of ambient noise at the beginning and ending of the track while "Possession Prayer" would have fit in nicely on the Wax Trax Black Box compilation from the 90s – but Charlie Fell's processed vocals are present on almost every song and lend an eerie, mechanical quality to the music.
As bleak and misanthropic as Death Mask is, it should be noted that the album does end on a bit of a positive note. The ten minute album-closer "Three Crosses" begins as a post-apocalyptic soundscape, but eventually veers into more positive sounding territory thanks to some meandering major chord guitar work that claws its way to the song's surface at roughly the five minute mark. The last third of the song launches into full on black metal savagery, but there's still a subtle air of positivism present that counterbalances the rest of the album's feral nihilism.
Death Mask isn't for everyone. The trangressive nature of this music goes way beyond the dopey slasher movie antics of bands like Cannibal Corpse, and a lot of people aren't going to be able to handle that. Everything about this album is offensive and confrontational, and that's what makes it so compelling. Like all good art, Death Mask demands active participation in order to be fully experienced. As grotesque as this album is, it presents listeners with the opportunity to question preconceived notions of morality and artistic merit. It's possible that Lord Mantis are creating music that's completely amoral and disgusting, but the beauty of this album is that it's so offensive that it begs to be discussed.
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