On The Horizon: Landless (11.03.) #7 /ENG/

It’s our first, but not our last time going abroad in our On The Horizon series. Starting it off with none other than the Slovakian based metalcore band, Landless, who you can know from the YouTube channel Dreambound. In this article we will be focusing on their first album, Mirrors, released this September, the phases in the band’s existence, and why you should be following them in the future.

Band: landless (SVK)

Album: Mirrors (2021)

Genre: Metalcore, Post-hardcore

The history of Landless: Landless put themselves up on the world stage of music for many Slovakian and Czech metalcore fans, in 2015, with their debut EP, “Bluemist”. In 2016, they showed their talent again, with “Connections”. The next step took a bit longer to climb, but by that time the band from Zilina was more widely known. We arrived in 2019, and to our second EP, “Moonflower”. Many more songs, such as Blooming Mind and Golden Days, made it to Dreambound, and so a new age began for the band. To this day, this streak is unbroken, so you can listen to every single released landless song on the Dreambound YouTube channel. We get to know the new 2021 album more and more, thanks to the periodically released singles. The first one to arrive was “Nobody” in February, then “Borrowed Time” at the end of April. Summer did not prove uneventful either, with the next single in June, “Waves”. The last single to come out was “Revive” which features Jay Kucera the singer of Skywalker (a Czech post-hardcore band). Now we have arrived to September, and with it, what we’ve all been waiting for, “Mirrors”.

Current line-up:

Ladislav Mikolas – Vocals
Peter Kozak – Guitar
Marek Halmo – Guitar
Nikolaj Hordrin – Drums

What kind of themes can you find in the songs of “Mirrors”? The band members said this about the album:

“The lyrics of the album Mirrors are especially very personal. They’re about human feelings as anxiety or “overthinking”. Lyrics are also about how to get rid of these feelings, but also about less dark topics, such as hope for a better tomorrow, or about how important is the role of “time” in our lives.”
– LANDLESS

How diverse are the songs on “Mirrors”? Listening to the previously released songs, we can see, that this album is a diverse one, incorporating both lighter and heavier sounds into the songs. Let’s dive into some of the songs, so we can experience this side of Mirrors.

landless – Borrowed Time

Borrowed Time is obviously a song blessed with one of the greatest vocals on the album. Even by listening to only this one song we can feel the band’s openness to trying new styles and genres. The clean vocals are varied going towards a more pop-like then a heavier feel, but next to the chorus even the verses take ahold of you. The drums are dynamic giving the basis for the singing, and perfectly following the pulsing of the song. We shouldn’t forget about the guitarists either! They get a larger role both in the intro and in the bridge, bringing that little bit of extra which makes the song that much better.

landless – Waves

Waves is a song bringing some real summer vibes, it feels looser, lighter than the others. While enjoying the beauty of the landscape, the song with its fast paced instrumentals and enjoyable vocals just like its name implies takes us over like a wave. Ideal choice for those of us, who would want to enjoy the energetic song for just a moment.

landless – Heavy

Heavy didn’t disappoint us either, with its catchy refrain, dynamic and pleasing riffs it takes over the crowd. The guitar really shines on this song, but besides that it’s a really well put together song. It isn’t overly complex, only bringing what a song like this needs to bring. The vocals pair well, with the atmosphere this song wants to give. Even without the screams it hits you, you don’t feel its absence.

landless – Mirrors (Album)

Mirrors hits really hard, especially considering that it’s a debut album. Aside from the songs highlighted above, there are gems in the album. In Revive, and Falling Apart for example, we can hear some guest performers, for the former the above mentioned Jay Kucera, while for the latter, Martin Čupka from John Wolfhooker. I couldn’t leave out „Drowning” either, since I feel it’s one of the best, most lasting song on the album. For the lovers of scream I’d recommend Drowning and Nobody. Fantasy and Trapped Inside are also great choices depending on the kind of feeling and temperament of the song you’re looking for.

TRACKLIST

Heavy (3:49)
Falling Apart – feat. Martin Čupka of John Wolfhooker (4:06)
Nobody (3:02)
Revive – feat. Jay Kucera of Skywalker (3:47)
Waves (3:44)
Drowning (3:41)
Borrowed Time (3:42)
Fantasy (3:50)
Trapped Inside (3:47)

Link (for the Full Album): https://go.landlessband.com/mirrors

What does the future hold? For this question, we naturally can’t give you a perfect answer, but considering the two EPs and the new album, we can rightly say we are excited to hear the band’s new productions. We count landless among the other bands who we trust, will bring more metalcore, post-hardcore and modern metal to the region, and to the international stage, just like AWS did in 2018. It can easily be that they will even visit Hungary in the near future, after Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which is another reason to keep an eye out for this band.