18285

Landmine Marathon, Villains & Raspberry Bulbs on CMJ night 1 (pics & review)

by BBG

Landmine Marathon @ Gramercy Theater
Landmine Marathon

I was hoping to catch even more than I did on the first night of CMJ (10/18), but due to the amount of traveling I had to do to get from venue to venue, and unfortunate timing, I was only able to see three bands. At least they were excellent bands: Landmine Marathon, Raspberry Bulbs & Villains. It was a fantastic night.

My first band of the evening was Landmine Marathon at Gramercy Theater. The show, not part of the official CMJ Music Marathon, saw the Arizona quintet join forces with a gang of retro-thrash bands headlined by Warbringer. By the time I arrived at the venue, Diamond Plate was finishing up their set but I was front and center to catch Landmine bless the larger stage. Landmine Marathon wear their influences proudly; from their new and very-similar-to-Entombed logo all the way down to their Bolt Thrower/Napalm Death influenced riffs, it’s clear that LM worship at the altar of early Earache and the early days of death metal tape-trading across the Atlantic. Grace is an enigmatic frontwoman, and she seemed to have a good handle on the bigger live stage with a barricade. I still prefer to see them in a dingy basement.

After Landmine, I headed to Saint Vitus to check out Occultation (mem Negative Plane) but only managed to catch Raspberry Bulbs and the evening’s headliner Villains (I missed Skull as well). Featuring Nick from Rorschach on guitar, Raspberry Bulbs use clean guitar tone to make their black metal-punk all the more piercing, ugly, and ferocious. The mastermind behind the crew, He Who Crushes Teeth (he writes and plays all instruments on record), stayed mostly as frontman for the duration of the set.

Villains combined antisocial lyrics, street punk attitude, and black metal vocals/aesthetic for their usual taut and excellent set. They’re dependable and just plain raging.

More heavy CMJ shows happening this week are listed HERE. More pictures from my two-venue adventure on the first night of CMJ are below.

Landmine Marathon @ Gramercy Theater

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Landmine Marathon

Raspberry Bulbs @ St Vitus

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Raspberry Bulbs

Villains @ St Vitus

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains

Villains