Despite founding drummer, and sole original member, Bill Bumgardner's untimely death in 2016, Chicago blackened sludge vets Lord Mantis are carrying along as the band is currently in the studio recording their fourth LP.
Guitarist Andrew Markuszewski (Sonoran Rebel Black Magick, ex-Nachtmystium) recently posted on the Nuclear War Now! forums that he had rekindled his relationship with bassist Charlie Fell (Cobalt, ex-Abigail Williams), and that he would be recording a new full-length with the project with producer/engineer Sanford Parker (Buried at Sea, Corrections House, ex-Twilight).
"Charlie and I kissed and made up a few months back, and we're recording a new record in February back with Sanford Parker in Chicago," Markuszewski wrote in December. "The material is sounding really sick so far."
Nothing more was said on the matter until recently when current Abigail Williams drummer Bryce Butler (Seeker, BROJOB, ex-The Faceless) announced on Facebook that he was driving to Chicago to record with Lord Mantis and Parker, which is quite the musical undertaking.
Filling the void left by Bumgardner is going to be no easy task as the veteran drummer left quite the permanent impression on Chicago's extreme music scene.
"Lord Mantis and Indian had a huge impact on the mark that Chicago left as a music city," Parker told Clrvynt in 2016.
"Any time I’d be out on the road or working, any time the discussion of Chicago bands came up, those two were mentioned every time. They were definitely on the radar of people outside the city, for sure, and I think they had a big part in creating the sound that Chicago has."
