Slated for a June 26th release on LP through Handstand Records (US) and Maniyax Records (EU), as well as CD later this fall, “Excess Subconscious”, the newest full length from Lansdale, PA based noisy, chaotic, and stoner infused hardcore punk band L.M.I. is a one hell of dark subject matter. Blending its gloomy sonic palette with various influences, the record is highly energizing as it is bleak. The general concept of this record is the idea of anxiety and paranoia being such a constant in your life that it becomes part of your subconscious. It becomes “Excess Subconscious”. This is also reflected in the album cover.
With someone looking blankly but under the surface they are going through a whirlwind of emotions. – comments the band
L.M.I. have been a band for 10 years and have toured from coast to coast across North America. They have played with the likes of Full of Hell, Black Tusk, Today is the Day, KEN mode, Rosetta, Portrayal of Guilt, Spotlights, and many more, and can’t wait to get back on touring tracks:
Our plan once this album is released is to play as much as we can once live shows become a possibility again. In the spare time we have had from shows we have been taking this time to write new songs for releases in the future. We have also been doing a few live streams here and there.
We will be doing a tour this fall in support of this new album we will be releasing. Depending on the situation with Covid-19.
Track by track rundown:
– New Strings – This was maybe the third song we wrote for this album. But once it was written I knew it was going to be the opener for the record. The bridge always reminds me of Melt-Banana. Definitely jumps right in to fit the vibe for the rest of the album.
– Victim of Change – This song took a bit longer for us to work on due to the timing of the tempo and such. But it’s probably one of my favorite songs on the album just cause it’s fun to play. I also really like the contrast between the deeper vocals and the open guitar chords.
– Tracing Fortune – I believe this was the first song of the standard tuning songs that we wrote for this album. While I was writing it I was listening to a lot of Unsane. To me it definitely has a noise rock sound to it. My favorite part of this song though is the bass. I think the bass really shines without going over the top, particularly on the verse.
– Concrete Illusions – This was the first song we wrote for the album. Probably my favorite part of the song is the solo. Really liked how it came out from the recording. I also was toying the some vocal effects as well and I dig how they came out.
– Pulse of Ruin – Initially when I wrote this it had a completely different chorus and bridge. I wasn’t satisfied with how it was going and I ended up using parts of another song I was writing at the time to fill in the gaps and I think it worked pretty well. To me this is straightforward punk song with the drums really setting the tone right at the beginning.
– Ghost Teeth – This song I wrote the majority of right before we left for our US tour a few years back. I initially had a completely different bridge part written but half way through the tour when we played in Oakland I saw band that inspired me to write the bridge part that ended up becoming part of the song. To me the guitar is kind of reminiscent of Disclose but I added the chorus affect as well as the clean singing to make it a little more trippy. Once we got the final mixes for the album I knew this song was going to be the first one released.
– Another Shadow – Another Shadow was the last song we wrote for the album. With this song I tried to toy with some more vocal effects to kind of add a slap back to my vocals that I could also do live if I wanted. The bands that really made me want to try this out were Belgrado and Rakta. I really dig how both of those bands use vocals effects and I was sort of trying to emulate that. Initially we had the same vocal effect going throughout the entire song but at points I thought it became a bit distracting so we ended up just using it during the verse and bridge parts.
– Tomorrow Midnight – When I wrote this I was pretty much listening to Mammoth Grinder nonstop. The album they put out on Relapse a few years back was a big influence on me when writing this record. I had never done the deeper vocals for an entire song before and I thought it would be cool to try it out. I think it turned out well. We have been playing this song live for a little while now and I think it’s become one of my favorites. But if I’m being honest my favorite part of this song is the drums. The blast beats in particular I really like.
– Light Demise – I think this song works well as the closer because it really has a different vibe than the rest of the album. Mainly with the intro being much slower than anything else. The bridge to me makes me think of Mastodon as well. Our bass player likes this song just cause he can wail on the open D at the beginning haha. I also like how the ending turned out with the LP version of the album.
Lansdale hardcore scene
We are lucky to have a small Punk/Hardcore scene in Lansdale that has been active since the mid 90s. Within the last few years a local venue called The Underground has opened up which has been very beneficial to the scene here. Before we would only do shows at local VFW halls. Though that was fun we were limited to only doing shows on Saturdays. But now with this new venue we have been able to have more dates available for touring bands. Definitely a lot more shows happening now then in the past few years.
Here’s a couple of bands you should check out this year: Black Friday Death Count, Vulturepeak, Beer and Pretzels, Mutant Scum, Cetus, Sick Shit, Healer, King Slender, Andross, and Low Dose.
