The Mantis Chapter - Graveyard Poets EP (Prophet and Sound Recordings - 2008)

There are not that many hip hop artists around these days from the UK (or anywhere else) that appeal to me but thankfully The Mantis Chapter (beatsmith Acas13 and MC TS One) are one group that (along with a select few others) are an exception. The name of this release (their second EP) is “Graveyard Poets” and it is quite a fitting name as sonically and lyrically the EP is a gothic trip through the haunted underworld of darkness, demons and shadows.

Musically there are a couple main influences apparent and the majority of the tracks can be roughly described as taking the production of early Jedi Mind Tricks or Wu albums, giving them undertones of the golden era hardcore UK feel and topping them off with small doses of horrorcore. There are however a couple tracks that lean more heavily towards one particular side of those influences. One such track being “Dice With Death” which features Germany’s legendary Hideouz Newcome and is a track which would sit nicely on the shelf next to any britcore track from the early 90’s with it’s fast rhyming, alarm sounds and urgent beat. DJ Psychopath’s cutting on the track rounds out the hardcore package nicely.

For something slightly different we have “The Casebook of Terrors” which sounds very much like a UK version of the Lost Children of Babylon (once upon a time Jedi Mind Tricks cohorts) with haunting, dramatic and almost ethereal production at its backbone. It also contains one of my favourite lines on the EP by TS One ie. “… path of the night hawker, TS One the deer stalker, investigate the disappearance of a sleepwalker …”. Similarly the following track “Escape from the Mausoleum” (featuring Bandog and Remark) is another great track seemingly built on the moody and dark old Lost Children of Babylon/JMT looped foundations and lyrically it could be a suitable track for the next Mummy soundtrack with tales of fleeing the deep crypts of the netherworld. The highlight of this one is Bandog and I’m probably saying it every time I write about him but he once again steals the show however all three MC’s compliment each other well here with their individual and unique styles.

Then we have the tracks that sit right in the melting pot of the aforementioned styles. “Alchemist in the Mist” has a solid, sharp, midtempo almost military beat topped with loops from dramatic violins, which for me invokes thoughts of the WuTang Forever album yet at the same time we are reminded of the Mantis crew’s hardcore UK origins with DJ Highfly cutting up beautifully throughout the track and TS One spitting his rough rhymes in no nonsense, rough and vicious britcore style. “The Graveyard Poet” comes at us with similar elements to the “Alchemist …” (including another quality appearance from DJ Highfly) but instead of violins there are church organs looped behind the beat and also sounds of windstorms, all combined to great haunting effect.

It’s well worth mentioning the other guest appearances on here as they are excellent. Probably the darkest track on this EP and perhaps my favourite if I had to choose one is “Eastern Lights” with more church organs and all manner of haunting loops, some of which remind me of “Ghost and Goblins” from my Commodore 64 gaming days ! The two guests on this one are Inzaine and Ill Inspired who deliver terrific verses (as of course does TS One very consistently throughout the whole EP). Inzaine has a fantastically dry, raspy and rough voice (something like Nine) yet at the same time he actually flows as fluidly as Smooth B which doesn't always happen for MC's with voices like his - it's pretty special. Ill Inspired comes with a totally different style which is uncannily reminiscent of some of the styles found on old Deliverance and First Down tracks – I don’t know if he ever had anything to do with either group but he may as well have. Regardless of his background, it’s a great mic technique.

I'd think this EP would appeal equally to fans of older hard UK hip hop and/or darker US hip hop alike. It’s britcore, it’s horrorcore, better yet it’s simply hardcore ! I strongly recommend you go and grab it at :

www.themantischapter.co.uk

or

www.prophetandsound.com