Source: Album Artwork
UK quintet Landscapes release their 3rd album Modern Earth. The overall style of the album makes us think of the missing link between Bring Me The Horizon‘s Sempiternal and That’s The Spirit. They switch between Oli Sykes-esque screams and well placed melodic vocals, with atmospheric rock behind tying all sounds together.
The atmospheric overtone is introduced in the opening track. ‘Mouths of Decadence‘ is just over a minute of instrumental fading in with background noise, and with soft guitars it slowly builds with feedback until merging into the much heavier tones of the second track.
Throughout the second track the heavier feel remains, until the third track sees a true mixing of the two different themes introduced. Even on first listen the distinction between songs is a clear one despite the fact that there is always a sense of ‘Mouths of Decadence’ hanging over the whole record.
Landscapes have very cleverly combined atmospheric, ethereal rock with metal tones. The music you would more likely associate with a melodic vocal, fuses with screams well, while the use of more traditional vocals changes things up at just the right moments.
Roughly halfway through the album comes ‘Remorser‘, a track with spoken word vocals laid over the distinct music. It does seem to flow with both of the styles within the same track without breaking the effect demonstrating just how good this band are at finding the right balance of tones and emotions.
The final track is the perfect summary of the record. It starts with soft guitars, reminiscent of the opening track, introducing a soft vocal too. Inevitably things to get heavy after a slight crescendo. After this loud mid section, things die down again fading out into soft guitars through to indistinguishable speech, so quiet you might miss it at a lower volume as it rounds out the record.
Overall, it is a great record with a well blended variety of styles, particularly within the vocals, tied together by recurring themes within the guitars. It’s easy to listen to again and again due to this variety making it interesting on every spin.
