Artist: Infernal Mantle
Country: United Kingdom
Label: Diabolical Vitriol
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2025
Sometimes, or even most of the times, musical comparisons or other references made by a label to promote or describe their newest release are far from accurate. I remember the times, about ten years ago, that Season Of Mist compared almost all of their Black Metal (and related) releases with Watain and Goatwhore. Funny and pathetic at first, annoying in the long run. Diabolical Vitriol also dropped a few names to position their latest release and the first one by UK’s Infernal Mantle. It should sound like something that’s in between bands like Satanic Warmaster, Seigneur Voland, Beastcraft, Sargeist and Behexen. And, guess what… this time these parallels are not at all very farfetched.
In fact, more than often ‘Raise The Banners Of Satans Front’ reminded me of the earlier work of Sargeist, Behexen and Satanic Warmaster. A Finnish vibe is certainly hard to deny, but also Seigneur Voland is an obvious band to compare Infernal Mantle with. But, it depends a bit to what exactly you are listening. ‘Raise The Banners Of Satans Front’ is a demo that has more or less three faces, like a Cerberus guarding the gates of Hell.
‘Raise The Banners Of Satans Front’ seems to be recorded in three different takes. The first one sounds the best and has the most evident similarities with the three Finnish gods of Black Metal as mentioned before. The rather catchy and mournful riffs are the most prominent in the mix and are expertly draped over the solid rhythms, topped off with some ditto icy vocals, they will appeal to everybody who has a soft spot for Finnish Black Metal.
The second part is darker and the overall sound more oppressing, but essentially still very much a Finnish Black Metal affair, albeit having a more distinct Punk-ish feel to it. The third part, then, is a tad louder and has a slightly more chaotic character. It also has a less pronounced Finnish touch to the riffs and because of the very prominent vocals, the music as a whole has more in common with more Punk-based American Black Metal.
With a little imagination, we can even discover a fourth part in this demo, which lasts less than 20 minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the last part is the oldest. The last minutes of ‘Raise The Banners Of Satans Front’ is slower, darker and has a very murky production. This harkens back to the Black Metal scene from the turn of the millennium and bears similarities with the earliest works of Nargaroth, Judas Iscariot, Weltmach and Xasthur.
The cover of this demo tape shows a mythical winged lion, but it would have been far from strange to choose a multi-headed monster to portray the music on this first demo tape of Infernal Mantle. While the general outlines of this one-man band’s musical direction are clear, I imagine that once the choices are made a little more clearly a subsequent release will show a little more cohesion . But in the meantime, that takes nothing away from this enjoyable first demo that clearly shows craftsmanship.
