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Landmine Marathon - Sovereign Descent

The Arizonan upstarts know their way around a storming riff

Rating: 8

Truth be told, there’s nothing startlingly original about Landmine Marathon’s latest slab of grinding death metal, but in an era where most extreme metal acts seek to overwhelm the listener with incessant blasting and surgically precise shredding, it’s undeniably refreshing to hear some actual songs for once. Don’t get the wrong idea, these aren’t the kind of tunes you can whistle in the shower, but the Arizonan upstarts know their way around a storming riff and ‘Sovereign Descent’ comes laced with killer hooks aplenty. ‘Exist’ sets things in motion with a thunderous Bolt Thrower-esque groove, before frontwoman Grace Perry joins the fray with a venomous battle cry that could strip paint at 50 paces. Intensity levels remain firmly in the red throughout ‘Shadows Fed To Tyrants’ and ‘Foul Revolt’, the latter tipping its hat to ‘Heartwork’-era Carcass, while elsewhere the epic ‘Steadfast Hate’ lurches from crusty mid-paced crawl to blistering thrash attack. Throw in some typically eye-catching artwork from Dan Seagrave (Morbid Angel, Entombed, Suffocation) and a meaty production from guitarist Ryan Butler and you’ve got an album so gloriously metal it’ll make you want to scream at the Devil and punch God in the cock.

Mike Kemp