LANDMVRKS
The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been
They’re a true liminality of a band, LANDMVRKS. Here they are, putting on the airs of a band doggedly trying to achieve something, but doing so with a stock genre kit that makes that all too much of an improbability. On their last album Lost In The Waves, it turned out a real clunker that seldom even comprehended the direction it was heading in, let alone what it would find at the end. The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is kind of the same, but both better and worse in aspects that are inextricable in their lack of surprise from LANDMVRKS. It’s bigger and streamlined, but with a sense of identity clinging on by its fingernails. The odd bit of French rapping isn’t the be-all-end-all solution, y’know.
It goes without saying, however, that it is where LANDMVRKS feel like they have the most to offer. There’s simply no one else in the field pulling that off, and when it’s put right to the fore like on Blood Red—with skittering percussion patter and an airy feel to languish in—of course you’ll get a better result. Perhaps it’d be worth investing some more time into it when Florent Salfati has some genuine skill, handily eclipsing his workaday metalcore shift in terms of personality. On that side of LANDMVRKS, their propensity for white noise comes out in full force. There’s nothing interesting or compelling to latch onto; it’s a platter of empty calories arranged and gussied up to appear filling.
If this were something to get excited about, there wouldn’t be such a vast concentration of elements that feel so screamingly, plainly ordinary. If Lost In The Waves was an unsteady, gallumphing beast of an album that forced you to pay attention to its mess, The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is a more capable creature with magnitudes less influence. It’s the sort of metalcore that LANDMVRKS threatened but wouldn’t commit to—pedestrian and unexceptionable, saved from outright disposability by production that does have some beef to it. Like, just try and recall any of this, even after a few listens. You might remember that While She Sleeps’ Mat Welsh shows up on A Line In The Dust, but what exactly does he say or do? La Valse Du Temps clearly wants to be the album’s epic as it encroached on five-and-a-half minutes, but is there anything noteworthy to bring up in that time? Does the closing piano-ballad Funeral bring a climactic, melancholic feel, or is all it good for to show the croaking, oversold nadir of Salfati as a vocalist?
By that point, you’ve likely already tuned out of The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been, an album about a man’s journey into deeper, more despairing levels of hell that can only fit to that concept in fleeting spurts. Otherwise, it does about as much as garden-variety metalcore often does at eking out its ‘emotion’. That is to say, it’s fine on paper but just refuses to stand on its own. At least LANDMVRKS appear to be keeping their distance from total metalcore slop, but does that say anything? Just like almost every other element on this album, not really. Oh well—at least French rapping is still cool. • LN
For fans of: Make Them Suffer, While She Sleeps, Polaris
‘The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been’ by LANDMVRKS is released on 25th April on Arising Empire.
EYES
SPINNER
EYES’ Congratulations was like the quintessential modern hardcore album—swept up by storm-in-a-teacup hype that simply wasn’t to pan out. And that’s while fully accepting how good it was, in its embrace of noise-rock and the metal of their Scandinavian neighbours to do a little more overall. So, naturally, it got piled with ‘next hardcore breakout’ plaudits that haven’t been followed up on, even slightly. None of that is EYES’ fault, but rather the people who you’d hope would show up for this new album, and yet have been conspicuously absent. Yeah, SPINNER hasn’t enjoyed even nearly the same kind of hype, even with some presumed attempts from EYES themselves to cultivate it. Since Congratulations, they’ve become leaner, more straightly hardcore, and subsequently, a smidge less interesting.
To be fair, that’s only really a problem with SPINNER from a certain perspective. At the end of the day, a slightly stiffer Every Time I Die still has heaps in common with one of the shining lights of the scene for over two decades. Even if EYES do blow their load a bit early with Better, a minute-long display of sound and fury that wrenches each member to their absolute apex of brutality, SPINNER never finds them completely slipping. On the basis of for-the-throat hardcore, they’re intimately familiar with the kit—a couple of big shout-along lines on The Captain; shards of discord to pepper Save Face On A Regular Basis; the sort of unrepentantly heavy slaughterfest that makes Clown so strong. It’s all good stuff, a little more familiar in the macro sense, but not stooping to the unga-bunga basics, either.
You get the idea that EYES are more involved than to allow for that. Apparently, SPINNER is framed through the lens of a fictional anime episode from the early ‘80s, a detail so specific that it’s hard to imagine it’s some drummed-up garnish to make this come across more unique. It’d be nicer if it were built on more than the intro OP1 and the tiniest snippets that make their way into Save Face On A Regular Basis and the title track, but what can you do? It’s a hardcore album; with less than 25 minutes to work with, you’ve not got much room to articulate. In a sense, that’s where EYES can stumble, when it almost seems as though they’re taking away more than they’ve put back in. On the other hand, though…again, it’s a hardcore album.
As such, SPINNER is exactly what it needs to be. After all, this was the direction EYES were looking to take their work in, and they’ve done a fine job of keeping lean and trim without a full personality whitewash. From what they put down here, it maintains the feel of EYES that found so much favour last time. Whether said favour will re-emerge in time remains to be seen, but it probably should. This isn’t some master-stroke of genre-warping excellence, though when has that ever mattered in hardcore? If it’s good, the platform is deserved, and SPINNER could definitely use a few…ahem, eyes on it. • LN
For fans of: Every Time I Die, Coilguns, Death Goals
‘SPINNER’ by EYES is released on 25th April on Prosthetic Records.
Face Yourself
Martyr
Despite only emerging onto the deathcore scene in 2023, the transcontinental ensemble is rising quickly with their unrestrained bloodthirsty sound. Having released three EPs in quick succession, Martyr brings a ferocious and intense addition to the band’s brutal discography. While sonically it rages through the aggressive instrumentation and Yasmine Liverneaux’s demonic vocals, thematically it’s a vulnerable offering that lays bare the trials and tribulations of mental health battles. Martyr explores powerfully the fluctuations of these battles, along with the ebbs and flows of falling back into the darkness.
Self-doubt is like a devilish trickster—it can seep into all aspects of life, especially as an artist, and clutch you tightly in its hold. Primal’s chaotic twists and turns between fast-paced fury and slow tempo gloom aptly convey how even one’s own mood and conviction can suddenly change. Instantaneous in its attack, Predatory sees Liverneaux unleash both her shrill shrieks and monstrous gutturals amidst a tumultuous backdrop of rhythmic strikes and early ‘00s electronic glitches. Descending into a ludicrous breakdown that seems hell-bent on making it to oblivion, the entire assault is suddenly at its end. The Poet’s thunderous introduction leads through a rhythmically driven journey. Obliterating guitars, technical riffs, and thrashing percussion manifest a truly bleak and heavy offering.
A cacophony of distortion, power and air horns is to be found in Saboteur. The crushing instruments and demonic harsh from Liverneaux, along with backing from Corey Doremus and Kyle Muenzner, traverse a nightmarish arrangement. Much like the previous tracks across the EP, tempos and moods shift without a moment’s notice. This instability not only keeps you as listener on edge, but it cohesively links in the meaning behind Martyr throughout the release. Ending with Sideration, the atmospheric introduction to the song is enticing—whether out of anticipation or fear, it’s hard to say. Heavy hits and savage vocals soon erupt into violence. The eerie and uncanny character of Sideration is enhanced with vocal effects injecting an exaggerated inhuman sound into the mix. It’s a disturbing conclusion to this most ruthless and yet utterly thrilling EP.
The unescapable darkness, torment and melancholy that fuel the formidable force in Martyr, is executed in a highly proficient and creative manner. It’s immersive from the beginning. Short and abrasive, Martyr contains within an extensive array of styles and sonic explorations. It’s also stupendously heavy. • HR
For fans of: Lorna Shore, Jinjer, Monochromatic Black
‘Martyr’ by Face Yourself is out now on Sumerian Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall (LN) and Holly Royle (HR)
