Landmine Marathon vocalist Grace Perry commands the stage with fierce growls and powerful screams. But offstage you're likely to find her enjoying a science fiction book (she even works as a librarian). Landmine Marathon's third full-length is Sovereign Descent, and their first for Prosthetic Records. I spoke with Perry about the band's new CD, her pop punk past, a misspelled tattoo and a few other topics.
Chad Bowar: How did the end result of Sovereign Descent compare to the vision you had going in?
Grace Perry: I honestly don't think we had a vision. We just knew we wanted to up our game. We knew that we wanted to do something that we hadn't done before. I really think we succeeded in that, especially lyrically. I wanted to have more of a cohesive theme throughout each of the songs, instead of going on a whim. I planned out the lyrics more, I planned everything more, on my part at least. I think musically Ryan did the same.
What does the CD title signify?
I came up with many album titles. We went out to dinner and all decided this would be the best one. "Sovereign" is one rule, one power, and throughout the entire album I had the theme of overthrowing theocratic government, oligarchy and all those types of government that oppress and dictate people's lives. Sovereign Descent is the descent of that dictatorship and that rule that essentially rules the world in a lot of places. It came out even more through Dan Seagraves' artwork.
Read the complete Landmine Marathon Interview
Landmine Marathon - Sovereign Descent Review
(photo courtesy Prosthetic Records)
1995 was a pretty good year for heavy metal, with Death topping the list. My choices for the best of the year includes a wide variety of artists in genres like melodic death metal, death metal, power metal and others. There's also a wide geographic representation, from Sweden to Germany to Norway to the U.S. Take a look at my list of the best metal albums released in 1995, and then post your lists and comments below.
