Richard HolmesLawnmower Deth – Blunt Cutters (Dissonance Productions)
Marauding armies of malevolent gastropods.
Rampaging gardening equipment.
Cosmic STDs.
Yep, Lawnmower Deth are back with a new album… after a staggering 29 years.
Which makes us feel very old indeed.
Ooh crikey…
But as Blunt Cutters shows, Pete Lee (aka Qualcast Mutilator) and the boys are still in playful mood.
Scratch that: they’re still completely, absolutely, utterly daft.
However, Lawnmower Deth are also one hell of a crossover thrash band – which makes their fourth full-length a life-affirming, raucous party of spilled cider, slamming riffs and good-natured aggro.
Perhaps that’s what we all need at the moment.
Ok they’re not the young Nottingham oiks who bounced around to Satan’s Trampoline back in ’90.
Or the bozo clowns who brutally murdered The Osmonds’ Crazy Horses in ’92.
And they even have a health warning for more mature moshers on the album’s whirlwind opener, which rhymes ‘into the pit’ with ‘dislocate your hip’. There’s a slipped disc in there too…
Yet anyone with a Municipal Waste snapback or a DRI backpatch should be diving cap-first into Bobblehead, I Don’t Want To, Botheration and the fearsome, rapid fire Deth! Maim! Kill!.
Raise Your Snails (the one about the aforementioned gastropods) is a particular highlight. Simple, chugging riff. Bonkers lyrics. Great tune.
The jubilant hardcore of Bastard Squad, all gang vocals and raw energy, is also sure to be a live anthem.
Indeed, it’s on stage where Lawnmower Deth are at their best, coaxing a reckless stage dive or two out of those who, quite frankly, shouldn’t be doing it at their age, and giving fans one hell of a night out.
And thanks to Blunt Cutters, they have 18 new bangers to do it with.
Enjoyed this review? Check our Top 10 Thrash Metal Albums of 2021.
Band photo by Nick Parkes.