It's been a while since Lord Mantis have come through with a full length grime fest for our debauchery-loving ears, their last effort being 2014's Death Mask, which was? so so. While not a bad album, it felt as though it lacked some of the energy and meanness of their earlier material. In this respect Universal Death Church is something of a return to form for the band, not quite as good as their widely hailed album Pervertor, mind you, but definitely better than their last album. Immediately noticeable with the music here is that there's an overall better synthesis of the black and sludge metal that composes the Lord Mantis sound. "God's Animal" might be the most exemplary track, filled with razor sharp tremolo riffing, Charlie Fell's evil shrieks, and a plodding, sludgey, and oddly catchy structure throughout.
Also noticeable on Universal Death Church, which makes it somewhat distinct from past Lord Mantis releases, is the sense of atmosphere. This may sound like an odd descriptor for the band, who have little "atmosphere" amidst their bile soaked kvlt sludge shenanigans, but it's present enough on this album to note. During certain moments on the album the riffs take more melodic, spacious turn, softening up the aggressive approach ever so slightly and actually feeling a bit more mellow, particularly on the ending half of "Qliphotic Alpha," or the opening of "Damocles Falls." There's also "Low Entropy Narcosis," which is something of a standalone track that drops the blackened sludge approach entirely in favor of an interesting approach more resemblant to some sort of melodic doom. While moments like this don't form the bulk of the album's structure, they are present enough to be notable and to serve as pleasant proof that the songwriting of Lord Mantis has certainly evolved beyond mere filth and fury.
Is Universal Death Church up to par with the almighty Pervertor? No. But given the sheer quality of that album and how hard it is to beat in the style of blackened sludge, it doesn't really need to be. Rather than trying to top it, Lord Mantis instead go for a more balanced blend of the black and the sludge here, with a few more restrained moments tossed in here and there that definitely raise curiosity about where they may go with them in the future. Raw, abrasive, and nasty, but also highly dynamic and sublime at points, Universal Death Church is a late year highlight that fans of the dirtier manifestations of sludge metal ought not pass up.
