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From
the awesome cover artwork (it reminded me of Demolition
Hammer’ s Tortured Existence) to the fat guitar sound
and the overall super organic production, this whole
second full-length by the Arizona quintet Landmine
Marathon screams of better times of ground breaking
music. Landmine Marathon do not belong to a wave of
revivalist musicians, they simply play old school
melodic death metal in the exact vein of some of the
genre creators and they are a mighty fine band at that.
Just to give
you an idea of how times have corrupted a description, when I
say melodic death metal one is bound to think of the hyper
polished and ultra tight sound of many bands that craft an ilk
of sterile metal. But Landmine Marathon go the opposite way,
their sound is so vintage that it sounds old, as if it had been
captured in the span of three days either in foggy London,
freezing Stockholm or fucking Michigan. When thinking of
vintage times we have to think of different production values.
Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s technology wasn’t so
developed and what was considered cutting edge wasn’t readily
available to no-to-low budget metal musicians. Those
circumstances and the sonic results of those circumstances
helped hone the metal sound that has so influenced Landmine
Marathon. Guitarist Ryan Butler has been in charge of the
production and he has done a fabulous job offering a raw live
sound that is old and yet has more punch than its influencers;
the guitars have girth and dirt, they become clear for the solos
and the voice of Grace Perry is so crude it will blister your
eardrums.
The songs
are awesome, to the point, straight forward, direct, perfectly
capturing a sound that at the time stood still in the
brutalizing evolution between thrash and death metal. At times I
think of Repulsion, others some of the riffs remind me of the
best material of Deceased and the early Earache and Nuclear
Blast roster. When twisting into a more melodic death metal
unit, Landmine Marathon’s songs retain a leading guitar playing
the higher more melodious note and when in full blast Landmine
Marathon wear some crusty influences in their sleeve, which may
just be a bit of leftover from the musician’s past endeavors.
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Feature Article on the Arizona written by Landmine Marathon |
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