Labels: Coptercrash
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Some of you may recall a rather spiffing band by the name of the Last Forty Seconds, who did a few releases a couple of years back now. I am mentioning them because the Saddest Landscape have the same vocalist as L40S, so that may help you get a handle on things right away. Musically, the two bands aren’t too far apart at all. On this 7″ the Landscape offer up 3 tracks of terrific emo, blending in a lot of traditional elements to come up with a great sound. The vocals are tops. Mostly sung and super desperate and all over the place – you can barely make out a word. The music is powerful and energetic, making me think of bands like Staircase and Funeral Diner. Part way through the first song they slide into the requisite twinkle breakdown, before the guitars crash in even noisier than before in an end of the world emo spazz out with the vocals raining in from on high. It’s just all spot on. Great stuff, gotta love the out of breath bits at the end. On the b-side is “the Sixth Golden Ticket” which is absolute money. It fills the whole 7″ on 33rpm and reminds me of Candyland Car Crash in places. It has a slow and pretty CFD style intro before the yelling comes in and they bring everything together for one of those long, classic emo songs that you’ll stick on mix tapes for some time to come. They do one of those breakdowns with screamed vocals away from the mic – don’t hear that too often these days, then it descends into an utter sobfest, check out the final moments. Woah.
Basically if you like powerful emo stuff then you will be all over this record, this is pretty much my favourite style of music and the Saddest Landscape are playing it par excellence. Ace.