Landmvrks – Lost In The Waves
Release Date: 19th March 2021
Label: Arising Empire
Pre-Order/Pre-Save
Genre: Metalcore, Hardcore.
FFO: While She Sleeps, Counterparts, Northlane.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Landmvrks are a French Metalcore band who have been rummaging around the bottom of hardcore bills for the past few years and with their new album Lost in the Waves they look to take seat at the big boys’ table.
Lost in the Waves takes very little time to get started. Across the ten tracks you are hit with fast paced riffs, disgustingly distorted bass tones and thunderous drums which is all held together by vocalist Florent Saifati. The opening track sets the tone early with a mosh call directly into a fiery, syncopated breakdown – tricks that the band will revisit throughout its short run time. It’s clear to see why the opening two tracks were picked as singles because they really show all the best the band has to offer.
However, Landmvrks suffers from a split personality; caught between fast-paced, brutish hardcore and the more sun-kissed warped tour vibes that bands like A Day To Remember have perfected. This album is at its best when it is doing the former. Lost in the Waves hits its peaks when the riffs are coming at you fast and the vocals are about to rip through your speakers. The balance of heavy hardcore vocals and elevated metal choruses are prevalent over these harder tracks and shows the evolution from previous releases.
After the first three songs, I started to fear that Landmvrks had revealed their hand too early. It left me hankering for something fresh (and, dare I say, different?). Surprisingly, my calls for innovation were answered with the arrival of track 4 Visage. Unfortunately, the concept was better than the execution. This track starts with a luscious ambient guitar akin to The Ghost Inside’s most recent output, but instead of bursting into a mosh-filled anthem the track takes an unexpected, yet sadly unwelcome, Trap turn. The guitars that have been driving this record are replaced with thick textured 808s and the double bass runs have been lifted out for tight and snappy high-hat patterns. However, the frantic vocals have been replaced by…eh, French “rapping”? I applaud Landmvrks for wanting to do something different, but this is so far off the mark that it comes across as blatant trend chasing. Despite the misfire of Visage,they quickly learn from their mistakes as they apply their rapping vocals to Say No Word but this time it’s combined withtheir signatureheavy backing and it works exceptionally well – proving itself to be one of the highlights of the record.
This is the area where Landmvrks could thrive. Lost in the Waves is the sound of a band at a crossroads: trying different experiments to see where they can go next with varying success. If the band could reconcile their disconnected personality and stay true to their hardcore roots they would be heading down the right path.
(3 / 5)
