Coming from the land down under LACERATION MANTRA presents us the re-release of their 2016 album "Infested". They have been playing straight forward and aggressive Black Death. Let's dissect this one. The album opens up with "Infested" which starts abruptly and straight into what I'd call a Technical Black Death mix, that start made me feel like I had missed half of the song though. The growls are not too deep and trade off duties sort of remain within the blackish range. Although pretty technical and nicely toned, to me, the guitars seem to be somehow just a bit buried into the overall sound at some parts. At this point I thought of old CENTURIAN and DEMENTOR.

"Bleed Out", the follow-up track gets a bit more grindish on the vocal side as the growls seem to get a bit deeper, making the trade off's more drastic while guitar breakdowns and bends give way to technical riffing in a constant exchange. Much more a full DM track for sure. The guitar leads sound very clear on this track. Every song I go through shows me something different about the band, a different technique or approach to one or another style or sound.

"Healing Through Bleeding" starts with a slow MORBID ANGEL style of controlled heaviness and the way they would imprint true evil into their sound. As the song evolves it flows into a nice lead exchange, backed up by the double bass that adds up to that headbanging impulse you just can't control when things get like this. I had no choice but to raise the horns and headbang to this one all the way. My favorite on this album along with "Masochistic Laceration" in which the overall sound, vocals and strings composition, made me think of DEICIDE.

There is more of this blasting Death Metal sound in the second half of the album than on the first half, where I felt there was a bit more of a Black Metal riffing in most of its compositions. I must highlight "Cellar Hell" because here, once again the band shows another face as I would say this is the one that sound the closest to pure old school DM, with deeper growls and slower breaks that bring to mind early GORGUTS or BROKEN HOPE.

The real fact is that I could keep coming up with some great names as influences of the LACRATION MANTRA sound. Don't get me wrong, this is not a Frankenstein made of tidbits and body parts from all over. This is a band that stands alone, on its own. Technical, aggressive, full of fury, with constant directional changes and raging vocals it has a devilish soul of its own. Any Death Metal fan should enjoy this. I will definitely be looking forward for their next offering.