Dead Verses

The Leviathan's Mandible is certainly a band which deserves a great deal more attention than they get; whether it's due to a simple lack of promotion or an unwilling scene, I have no idea, but it should certainly be rectified if at all possible. One of the most intensely experimental (in a genuine way) and intense death-influenced grind bands in the metal scene today, they play a style of music that's challenging and unique; certainly features that a majority of grind fans probably aren't typically looking for in their choice of music. The Leviathan's Mandible, though, far from being another band simply loading their music with novelty in order to appear unique, have an active interest in pushing the boundaries of their genre and of themselves, and for this reason deserve the support of all those who truly seek metal and grind to go somewhere it hasn't been.

At first glance, the music on 'Dead Verses' seems simple and maybe even rather thin: composed only of a single guitar, drums, and vocals, the instrumental setup of this music doesn't lend itself towards superbly layered and multifaceted compositions. The Leviathan's Mandible, however, uses the natural functions of grindcore to create something greater from these simple elements. The metallic music on this record is a variety of modern grind both influenced by hardcore and death metal, with an emphasis on quickly changing rhythms and unusual, articulate riffing with an almost daringly straightforward demo-level production job needing no trickery to convince that artistry exists where it does not. Far from being a riff-dominant album, 'Dead Verses' is a release where guitar, drums, and vocals all have unique and crucial roles in the establishment of songs in a way unlike most artists I've heard before.

Riffs on this album are a hodgepodge of modern Nasum-style metallic grind, white-belt modern post-hardcore influences, and the occasional churning, oldschool Napalm Death passage. Sequences of slow and crushing power chords will abruptly turn into a flurry of technical and schizophrenic single-note tremolo picking; few of the passages in these songs are as straightforward as they seem at first glance. A less intensely technical and more oldschool Discordance Axis would be a pretty good frame of reference here: it's not as obsessively artsy and white-belt as that band, but elements of it are certainly there in using the naturally compressed space of grind to its fullest extent. These songs pack a lot of ideas into surprisingly small spaces, and even the sub-minute songs that litter this LP are full of musical ideas that actually go places rather than rotely repeating themselves in an attempt to establish coherence.

Drumwork is alternately binary and elegant in nature, and is mostly voiced in one-foot blast beats and abrupt yet delicate fills, with the occasional twisting rock passage thrown in here and there to spice things up. The structures of these songs are harrowing and constantly changing; massive shifts in tempo and rhythm are common, and the guitar and drums seem in a sort of competition to keep up with each other and provide a balance for the vocals to rest upon. Of those vocals: primarily shrieking and post-hardcore in nature, they're occasionally attacked from the side by deep and guttural Barnesian death growls which add variation to an otherwise static performance. The vocals act as a sort of referee to the guitar and drums, preventing either from usurping the other in a battle for dominance over the music. They perform their function well, acting as a middleman to the instruments while still being given the opportunity to shine on their own.

'Dead Verses' is comprised of numerous brief grind tracks interspersed with periodic 'Verses' of noisy electronics. Not used as simple ambient interludes, these passages serve a very important role of breaking the grind up into more manageable chunks of music as well as standing up on their own as being full-fledged though simple and brief compositions. They provide a constant narrative thread for the album to follow, while being littered with the debris of grind on either side. The album reaches a conclusion of sorts in the title track, where alternating stretches of flickering and gentle post-rock alternate with bursts of extreme metal which are as much Autopsy as Pelican; it's one of the most intricate and developed songs on the album and stands as being a real gem. Blitzing denouement 'The Aftermath' is also a nice touch at the close of the album, functioning as a sort of 'alternate ending' for the story the release tells.

All in all, 'Dead Verses' is an extremely intelligent, articulate, and well-designed album with content that belies its rather plain aesthetic. Fans of modern grind and death metal are highly encouraged to give this release the attention it deserves, and to keep an eye out on The Leviathan's Mandible for future musical developments: they're one of the most promising artists in the grind scene at this time and show hope for a genre that's mostly stagnating under the weight of hipsterism and lack of ambition.