Confessions of a Videoblogger: Step Into the Landmine Marathon

Stepping back into the fray, to quicken the pulse in anticipation of Austin’s yearly audio horde, I thought I’d pick things up this week. Regardless of your fork-tongued tastes, there is always something of note going on at SXSW, and metal is most certainly an epic part of this. So, while last week, I brought you the most sickeningly slow quagmire of sludge, this installment features a blistering attack of frantic chaos.

I remember the first time I saw Landmine Marathon. I was booking shows at the amazing, yet short lived, Warehouse Next Door, in Washington, DC, and a friend asked if he could set up a show for a band he had seen on the road. He promised that they were a hyper-intense slab of un-forgiving metal. I said yes, but didn’t pay too much attention to the details. Needless to say, when Landmine Marathon fired up their motor, it was like being trapped in the lawnmower scene from Dead Alive. I immediately bought the vinyl, and must have listened to “Crisscross Thoughts” an infinite number of times.”Stoked” would be putting it mildly, to describe my feelings about seeing them again, several years later, at that same said Brooklyn Vegan show mentioned in my last post.

As most metal fests go, (and I’m using the term loosely here to denote any show where more than 6 bands are on the bill), this had been a long day of repeated bludgeoning. The crowd had reached the level of enthusiastic, yet numb, showing most of their appreciation for the acts with their glowing eyes. And yet, as soon as Landmine Marathon stormed the stage, the place erupted in unfettered violence. With a sound that churned in the chemical imbalance between death and grind, and a band that darted with ferral nihilism, no one was safe. I distinctly remember being kicked, from the stage, hard and square in the stomach by Landmine Marathon’s lead singer. All in all, it was a frantically memorable set, both in sound and action.

What pandemonium SXSW holds this year, I have no idea, but, if it’s even remotely as powerful as this, it will amazing, baring that I survive.