Landmine Marathon

Old School death metal revival be damned. Having spent the past several years sharing stages with prominent underground acts, Landmine Marathon have nothing to prove, with regards to their truthful delivery of extreme heaviness. The Phoenix quintet's faithfulness to an HM-2-inspired, thick guitar sound, liberal use of Entombed-style D-beat ("Dead Horses") and gruesome lyrics are laudable and in keeping with the original intentions of the style. However, even with the inclusion of numerous Bolt Thrower-leaning double bass attacks and twisted tremolo melodicism that hearkens back to early Dismember ("Three Snake Leaves"), the undeniably similar influences on display on Gallows are worn down rather quickly, leaving most of the grimy corners in which the band choose to dwell explored by mid-album. That said, the group return with a vengeance on closer "Morbidity." Anchored by a ten-ton riff and frontwoman Grace Perry's venom-soaked vocals, the track perfectly conjures the pit-starting ferocity death metal was meant to instigate.