Thursday, August 13, 2009

Leemind Dorianmarathon

Napalm Death's Lee Dorian 1989


Landmine Marathon's Grace Perry & Ryan Butler 2009

While seeing Landmine Marathon for the first time on Tuesday night, I was reminded of this iconic photo of Lee Dorian circa: From Enslavement To Obliteration (or as it's known in metal forums, "FETO, dood!") The unpredictable and amazing stage prescence of Grace Perry as well as her choice in fine flannel shirts, reminded me of this forever ingrained image of the then N.D./now Cathedral frontman. Granted, I never saw Napalm Death in 1989 as they didn't come to the Bay Area until a year or two (?) after the release of "From Enslavement..." on the "Grindcrusher" tour with Godflesh and (I think) Carcass. That said, I lucked out and saw them on the following tour with Dorrian-fronted doomsters Cathedral & Carcass. I might post a "retro-show" review of that sometime.

Getting back to the present, Landmine Marathon reallytore it up. Seemingly endless strains of extremely fast yet continually interesting songs. All of which seemed to mix grindcore, death metal and the fastest thrash metal with extremely heavy yet not cliched breakdowns. While they have received a decent amount of press via Invisible Oranges, Decibel and even the otherwise "Hot Topic-ists" at Revolver have a guest blog by aforementioned Grace Perry here. L.M. was not only a fantastic band onstage but also also very friendly folks off stage. Always good to see bands that are "complete" i.e. great music, interesting lyrics, good artwork, great live show & sincerely nice people. So now get your ears onto this: 'cause it fuggin' RULES!

No comments: