„The Interzone Mantras is the sixth album released by The Tea Party. Following the success of their previous album, Triptych, there were high expectations for this release. Jeff Martin hyped the Interzone Mantras by proclaiming it would be the band’s heaviest rock album to date. He even went so far as to say that “Canada finally has a rock band again.”

In the end, however, many fans were rather disappointed as the band did not really fulfill their promise. Despite claims to the opposite, many of the songs were somewhat overproduced in the studio. In some cases, perhaps “less would have been more.”

Nonetheless, The Interzone Mantras definitely connects the band back to their past. Thanks to the use of exotic Eastern instruments, some of the songs have a mystical depth to them which blends beautifully with their dark romanticism.

Much like Triptych, the array of music on this record ranges from rock songs like “The Master and Margarita” and “Cathartik”, to Eastern-inspired songs such as “White Water Siren” and “Mantra,” to the more typical ballads like “Soulbreaking.” The Tea Party has created a wonderful record, yet one has to wonder how some of the songs might have sounded if Jeff Martin had used a lighter touch as a producer.

The cover art was created by the Italian artist Alessandro Bavari. Stuart Chatwood discovered Alessandro’s work while reading an art magazine. Bavari did an excellent job of capturing the rather dark aura of the record and integrating it into the CD artwork. The band was so excited by the end result that the cover picture was included as a mini poster with the CD. The first 100,000 CDs also included an additional cover. The German version included a bonus track, “Walking Wounded,” which wasn’t available in Germany until then.