Mansion - Second Death (2023)^{Release ID: 42338}

Mansion are a band I have championed since the release of their debut album, First Death of the Lutheran, back in 2018, so I was really stoked to see a follow-up slated for release early in 2023. The Finns are a traditional-sounding doom metal outfit with an ovearching theme of puritanical religious cultism, in particular Kartanoism which was a Finnish cult of the 1920s to '50s that was extremely strict and frowned upon sex, even between the married. I am guessing this is merely an aesthetic choice and that the band are not actually practicing Kartanoists (I can't help but feel the actual cult would frown upon doom metal!) but you never really know, do you?

They play fairly straight-up, quite slothfully-paced, traditional doom metal with both male and female clean vocals, although the female vocals do dominate most of the runtime. I have long been a fan of female-fronted doom metal and Mansion follow quite closely the template set by bands like Windhand and The Wounded Kings, but Alma's vocals have a girl-like quality which, when coupled with lyrics intoning God's prohibitions and punishments for transgressions, is exceedingly disturbing in it's effect. During the album's best track, Heathen Hole, over a brooding and ominous main riff male singer Osmo wrings his metaphorical hands as he confesses his earthly urges, whilst Alma berates him as she intones "What have you done, You will lose your soul". The occasional overlayering of an organ on top, further adds to the discomforting atmosphere of religious zealotry and, in all honesty, this is way more unsettling than the more usual occultism employed by many doom bands. The riffs are suitably leaden and set the standard for the album's oppressiveness with nothing showy and very little by way of lead guitar work, the vocalists being the main point of attention. The songwriting is pretty good, with most tracks taking a turn or two along the way and always remaining interesting, with some reasonably melodic sections that make each song memorable and the album as a whole has a high replayability factor. Ultimately this (and Mansion's body of work in general) are based upon the unsettling and oppressive atmosphere they create and thus I consider this to be an unqualified success.