This is the debut album from Polish black metal band Death Like Mass.
Featuring current and ex-members of Enthroned, Lvcifyre, and Nightbringer, Death Like Mass play old-school black metal that boasts a keen edge of individuality that’s unusual in the style. Across 44 minutes of material The Lord of Flies impresses.
The music is raw and harsh, attacking with sharp icy claws that drip with spectral venom. It is a furious assault of blades, driven deep with zealous occult intensity. It does this with an air of esoteric fanaticism, a timeless heart, and an expressive artistry that I wasn’t prepared for. The music may be born of the second wave, but this is not mere ancestor worship. Rather, Death Like Mass have taken the 90s template and corrupted it to fit their own arcane vision. As such, this is more late 90s than early 90s, mirroring a time when many black metal bands were becoming more inventive with their sound.
As such, Death Like Mass present as a more creative and atypical example of black metal darkness. Many of the song structures are imaginative and unexpected, and the riffs, (many, many good riffs!), frequently twist and contort into a form of blackened violence that doesn’t always conform to the standard. In some ways The Lord of Flies reminds me of Mayhem‘s seminal Grand Declaration of War with its ambitious and idiosyncratic vision, although I should make it clear that Death Like Mass have their own personality within this.
Yep, I like this a great deal. It’s foundation is a black metal one that’s firmly recognisable as what it is, but Death Like Mass take this and make it their own.
The Lord of Flies is an interesting, enjoyable, and engaging record that does its own thing within such a well-travelled genre, and the results are really strong. Fronted by the singer of Cultes des Ghoules, Death Like Mass have put together an album that has a lot to offer adherents to the blackened underworld.
One to explore at length. It slithers and mutates with malevolent grace every time you listen to it, but slowly you begin to get the measure of it. Make sure you experience what Death Like Mass have to offer. The danger is great, but so is the reward.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 