WHITE MANTIS is a German thrash metal band (from my beloved Munich) active since 2012, and after numerous line-up changes, has released the debut album "Sacrifice your Future". All the songs have been written after the demo "Fukkin' Demo" released in 2014, except "My favourite chainsaw", re-recorded for this first album. According to their biography, Listening to White Mantis is great for destroying your local disco, killing mutants in the post-apocalyptic death zone, studying complex mathematics and some other hilarious shit! Then, a short look at the cover and at the logo, and it is pretty easy to guess that WHITE MANTIS are playing real thrash metal, with no compromises and with influences of black metal, and inspired a lot by some thrash gods from the past, like for example Nuclear Assault.

The initial triptych ("Cannibal State", "Bleached" and "My Favourite Chainsaw") are played at unreasonable speed and with aggressiveness, with the scratchy voice of Matthias Pletz, but leaves no trace behind. And this is more or less the leitmotif of the album: an old school thrash played at insane speed, not support by a decent production, that gets lost in itself. There are few episodes that stand out, like "There's No Law on the Post-Apocalyptic Highway" which reminds me of a mixture between TESTAMENT, NEVERMORE AND VOIVOD, making it one of the most interesting tracks on the album, together with "Catcher in the grey", where the speed is left aside, and instead, a techno-industrial thrash approach is pursued. Another remarkable song is "Cavern on the ancients", where some influences from their compatriots KREATOR are clearly visible.

After all, I could say that "Sacrifice your future" is not a bad album, and it is giving its best when it not played at full speed and instead a more technical approach is chased, like in the episodes I highlighted. When instead, an aggressive and speedy approach is chosen, also due to a confusing production, the result is not memorable.