THE MANTLE

A collection of moody, rarely interesting songs that attempt something a little out of the norm for death-metal bands: to put the listener to sleep with extended tracks lacking any sort of excitement or memorable moments. "The Mantle" is a very somber, and very overrated metal album.

To start with, the band's songwriting is numbingly repetitive, which is the main reason why this album seems so long-- the songs drag into each other and are almost all the same tempo and played with a staggering lifelessness that completely sabotages the album's effectiveness. If the band put some emotion into their playing it might generate more of an impression, but as it is now, it's like they're just trying to fill space (more than an hour of it). The rhythm section is easily the worst culprit of this, but the guitars aren't much better.

To top things off-- the vocalist is terrible. His growls are more like impish squeaks and his somber singing is as unexciting as it gets.

To the band's credit, they are trying to do something different within the post/death/black- metal genre, but need to polish their songwriting and add some energy to their playing if they are to put out anything worthwhile.

Songwriting: 2 Instrumental Performances: 2 Lyrics/Vocals: 2 Style/Emotion/Replay: 1