Gallows

Landmine Marathon is a band that get looked over a lot by the metal community. It seems like they live in the shadows of other female fronted death metal bands like Arch Enemy or The Agonist. Which is a shame because Grace Perry has some of the most brutal vocals for a female fronted singer I've heard (Only to be topped by Som from Cerebral Bore).

Anyways, Gallows is an album that doesn't bullshit around. It's in your face from start to finish and is 30 minutes of traditional death metal. It at times sounds reminiscent of bands such as Bolt Thrower and Entombed (and possibly Slayer?). The album starts of with a Slayer-like tremolo squeal on the opening track, "Three Snake Leaves". Which sets the tone for the rest of the album. Almost all the instruments are solid on this album. It reminds me of a 90's death metal sounds that was defined by Bolt Thrower and other bands from that era. The only 2 complaints I have about them though is that the solos really aren't that inspired. It sounds like a bunch of random notes and tremolo squeals. Nothing really special about them besides the fact that they sound like a tribute to Slayer. My second complaint is without careful listening some of the tracks sound exactly the same. Which in my opinion, makes the album not as interesting as it could be. Anyways, Grace Perry's vocals are also more guttural in this album compared to previous Landmine Marathon albums. She growls much deeper in this albums in comparison to their earlier albums, "Sovereign Descent" and "Rusted Eyes Awake". She even sounds like Corpsegrinder at parts in this album. Especially on the 3rd track, "Knife from my Sleeve."

While its definitely not breaking new ground, There are some pretty brutal gems on this album. Some parts lack originality and diversity. But its still a pretty solid death metal album. Its a throwback to all the 90's death metal bands. And considering its only 30 minutes long, You can't complain about anything on the album dragging on. While its definitely not breaking new ground or trying to start anything new, Its still an enjoyable listen for anyone whose a fan of traditional death metal.

Recommended Tracks: "Three Snake Leaves", "Knife from my Sleeve", "Dead Horses", "Broken and Left Blind."

Landmine Marathon is "death metal" for people that don't get death metal by people that don't get death metal. There is no reason at all for this band's brain bleaching, standards lowering sonic diarrhea to exist at all. Landmine Marathon (the band name sounds like something more befitting an ironic NYHC/ska hybrid than anything death metal) is all marketing tactics first, good music second. The problem is the good music is never delivered and what we're left with here is an overpraised or over promoted rock album that uses death metal cliches and techniques to fill the void of inconsequential noise that looms around every corner on this release, similar to what other "modern OSDM" shams like Entrails and Repugnant disgrace the underground with.

Of course, a major point of contention is the "female vocalist" gimmick. Never mind the fact that all-girl band Mythic were playing real heavy doom/death and had Craig Pillard styled low vocals, this is something "nu" for the uninformed metalcore audience that they're pandering to. They're delivered in the faux-growl metalcore informed delivery heard in The Black Dahlia Murder that any nobody can perform. Considering they replaced this vocalist with another woman that sounds just as poor, this could all be chalked up to good marketing/gimmickry. The music itself feels more like the band went through a checklist of ways they could dress up what is effectively thread bare rock music through death metal artifices. You have the d-beat drumming (Entombed), rolling double bass and bass distortion (Bolt Thrower), HM-2 guitar tone (like those Swedish bands), and they throw it against cliched death metal riff forms in verse-chorus songs that accomplish nothing more than creating some kind of "easy listening death metal" for metalcore kids. The ill-fitting butt-rock solos they throw over their "death metal" reveals the true AC/DC nature of this band.

Song structures are mere verse-chorus affairs. It's standard radio rock format stuff made to sound "evil" and "death metal" through aesthetics. The artwork by MID (Napalm Death, Gorefest, etc.) and the "personal" lyrics suggest that this band is actually trying to be "deep" with this crap, coming off as Barney Greenway's Diatribes lyrics rewritten in a way that would appeal to Darkest Hour and Poison the Well fans. With their "emotional" lyricism, you would think that all the tremolo picking, extreme drumming, and other elements that they employ would change the emotional landscape somewhat. False! This album is relegated to being perpetually stuck in a fixed state of almost absurdly cheerful bounciness that would make later Pungent Stench and Cancer seem like 80s Slayer by comparison. It all comes across like the background music to an aerobics workout VHS given a "death metal" makeover. Songs typically go from nu-Bolt Thrower riffs (think the 2 note stuff from their Metal Blade years), going into a punk rock with tremolo picking part that feels like Clandestine era Entombed without any of the "horror" feeling (so, it's just bouncy punk rock), and cycling between these states before going into a Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos styled "breakdown". These "breakdowns" sound like hard rock riffs given an overblown HM-2 pedal tone and the rolling double bass feel of Bolt Thrower for the appearance of being "death metal", but musically has more in common with a 3 chord punk band playing at a slow pace on down tuned instruments. Occasionally, there are "blast" parts in these songs that come in the form of random atonal Malevolent Creation circa "the bad years" riffs that feel like they were thrown out to remind people that this is allegedly "death metal", with notes floundering about randomly which add nothing to the song but a change of "riff form" they can check off their list of cliches.

This band is a disgrace to death metal, and it's promotion of mediocrity makes it dangerous to life and culture as well. With so many third rate Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos ripoffs from the early 90s like Rottrevore and Macrodex/Crypt of Kerberos playing the "rugged, post-apocalyptic death metal" more successfully (by actually "getting" the source material), why would anyone bother with this modern wannabe that chooses to remove all the morbidity and vitality out of death metal to make way for nice little verse-chorus structures, metalcore informed "fake growl" vocals, and bounciness wrapped in a plastic production to keep the metalcore kids happy while wearing death metal aesthetics as a mask for legitimacy? This is the problem: it's rock music at heart and death metal in technique only, missing the whole point of the genre and relying on "surface elements" (female vocalist gimmick, old school packaging, HM-2 pedal tone) to get ahead. There's better options out there as far as new bands like Desecresy and Disma who actually play morbid and down tuned death metal while adding their own flair and not relegating themselves to performing a series of cliches in radio format compositions. People like to say music like this is "keeping the flame of death metal burning" when it's actually killing whatever passion is left in the genre by showing people that all you need are some marketing tactics mixed with a few borrowed sounds to be rewarded for just "sounding like it". The fact that they would sell the same exact crap after this release on a "limited vinyl" featuring artwork by a Limp Bizkit member Wes Borland (Self titled release from 2012) should say enough about this band's sincerity and credibility. If you have an iota of taste and value your mortality, avoid this time waster.

Landmine Marathon is a band I've often admired more than desired. Having witnessed their utterly annihilating stage antics at Union Pool two summers ago, I was smitten. Live, they are bestial -- early Earache incarnate -- invoking the Grindcrusher era without utterly xeroxing it. But prior to now, their violent death-grind just hasn't translated to record. This disappointing development coupled with the relentless media hype surrounding Grace Perry, Landmine's female vocalist, alienated me. Women in metal are never given an easy time of it and Perry's image suffers from her attractiveness, as well as the band's somewhat derivative emulation of superior predecessors. I chalked that enjoyable live experience to a one-off, a band whose energy transcended their material. Things have changed a bit, however, with Gallows, a hellacious offering that comes close to capturing Landmine' live spirit and spitting venom.

I am old enough to have enjoyed Bolt Thrower and Napalm Death in their primes. And few bands since have captured that primitive adrenaline rush of raw death-grind magic quite like Landmine. Sure, they aren't breaking new ground here, merely keeping a usurped style on life support while tech-heavy bands rewrite the death metal playbook. And though Landmine aren't quite as compelling in their songwriting as their heroes, they do throw in enough contemporary flourishings to keep things from reeking of complacency and stagnation. For starters, Grace's vocals are a real stand-out. She sounds like a grittier Karyn Crisis shorn of all affectation. Her range never exceeds a biting, mid-range snarl, though she puts a lot of power in. Combined, as it is, with occasional backing death grunts and gang shouts, her vocals are forceful and appropriate with nothing prettified about them. I am also a fan of the slower chugging mosh parts (all tastefully handled) and occasional morose doom-laden passages. These elements especially place me in mind of Bolt Thrower, that cavernous wall of sound ushered in by solid riffing and well-placed double bass. If you want a quick, crisp exercise in Harmony Corruption meets The IVth Crusade style death metal, Gallows fits the bill.

But what makes this record so enjoyable is also what holds it back. Landmine Marathon may not be totally derivative of their peers and their songs do shred but one wonders what a few stronger hooks and bigger riffs would bring. At a brisk 28 minutes, Gallows clocks out before it has sunk in. There is no stand-out colossus, no truly memorable number on which to hang a huge fanbase. Very few riffs truly and deeply sink in. Gallows is a bruiser but it won't break you. Which makes Landmine Marathon a fun, enjoyable, violent good time but not anything truly essential. If you've worn out your early Earache records, by all means, give this a whirl. You'll feel that trigger itch, that tremor of classic death-grind excitement, and for most metal and grind junkies like myself, that's enough.