There hasn’t been a new studio album from those “legendary garden machinery obsessed Thrash/Crossover titans” Lawnmower Deth since ’93s Billy, but all that is about to change with Blunt Cutters. The content may be slightly less lawnmower obsessed these days, but the humour is still there by the grass-catcher-full on this latest, compact, eighteen track, thirty-four-minute offering and much needed after the year and a half we’ve all had.
Lawnmower Deth – Blunt Cutters (Dissonance Productions)
Release Date: 28 January 2022
Words: Jools Green
Pretty much across the whole of Blunt Cutters, the lyrics will have you sniggering like a school kid. It’s a mixed bag of tracks from the under a minute, don’t blink, or you’ll miss them offerings. The short and silly Swarfega, the frantic paced Good Morning Phil, the punchy but bonkers Christ Options, the up-tempo thrash punk blast of silliness that is Space Herpes or Goodnight Bob, an intense delivery melded with waves breaking on a beach.
Despite repeated listens I’m not quite sure what happened to Bob. It was all over too quickly. Maybe he got washed out to sea.
At just over a minute, title track Blunt Cutters, is an addictive meld of drum rhythms and lyrical repeat alongside a high haunting backing vocal.
As for the (slightly) longer tracks, there’s the opener, Into The Pit, an up-tempo thrasher and a witty warning to the older pit goer, like myself, of the dangers therein. So “don’t dislocate your hip”, because pits are a perilous place, particularly a Lawnmower Deth pit. I know I’ve been there.
I Don’t Want To is an even more up-tempo, neck-snapping thrasher. There are also a couple of punk-infused thrashers. The hardcore bad attitude-filled Botheration, which is as catchy as it is silly and the equally silly Bastard Squad, which has a brief but ear catching burst of midpoint leadwork.
Now He’s A Priest, with its dirty addictive groovy undercurrent, is one of my favourites on this album, while Bobblehead and Nothing But Noise are a couple of notable punchy thrashers, the latter with a great bassline and a jaunty chunk of surprising latter end leadwork.
Regarding the anthemic Raise Your Snails, the album single, a great track but my recommendation is just get the lawn mower out and drive over those little bastards!
After a humorous soundbite intro about the correct pronunciation of the word Hades, courtesy of Julien Miquel and his “How To Pronounce with Julien” videos (clearly Lawnmower Death find the guy as hilarious as I do), Deth! Maim! Kill! turns into a maniacal driver with its chanting chorus and dark undertones.
Also very maniacal is the d-beat thrasher and tongue twister Power Bagging, and we mustn’t forget the punky driver Hell’s Teeth which also has a bit of a bonkers twist to its construct.
And then there is the final track, the almost five minute monster and politically orientated Agency Of C.O.B. With a spoken lyrical commentary, haunting guitar work alongside a kind of blackened, hippy space Metal meld that drifts into a rather nice closing symphonic element, it reaches a surprising level of sophistication that suggests all the album budget went on this track.
It’s probably as close as you’ll get to a sensible track, albeit with a sarcastic undertone too. Well, there has to be one, and it’s also a brilliant track that definitely took me by surprise.
Indisputably an album to lift the cobwebs of despair. You need Blunt Cutters in your life.
Blunt Cutters was produced by Chris Clancy (Massive Wagons, Those Damn Crows) and will be available as a CD, Ltd Edition Transparent Green Vinyl and streaming on the usual platforms.
