Adelaide's reigning grindcore standard-bearers of all things blast, Meth Leppard, once again unleash straight fucking Hell with their brand new LP, Gatekeepers. The last time we saw Meth Leppard on the blog was back in 2021 with the band's split EP with Infanticide. (That also happens to be the last record I reviewed that was not a submission from a band or label.)
2025's Gatekeepers is the band's first full-length since 2020's Woke LP. Woke was released into a literal world on fire. The Australian Black Summer brush fires tragically devastated forty-six million acres of the country, displaced almost a hundred thousand people, and killed a billion animals. The Covid pandemic global lockdowns had over thirty billion people in ninety countries sheltering in place and millions of others dead. The final years of Trump's first presidential term (big eye roll) were inflicting as much damage as they possibly could. And now, some five years later, Gatekeepers is released into a sickly familiar looking world.
The guitar tone is rich and distinctive. Unlike Woke—which had an underlying howl in the distortion and throughout the record—Gatekeepers' tone is crisp and vivid. It's a sound more reminiscent of Meth Leppard's most recent split with Axis Of Despair, if anything. If you actually dig in and listen, the layers of depth in the guitarwork are impressive on a technical level.
While a majority of the record's guitarwork is pure needling brutality, there are some moments of subtlety. Opening titular track, "Gatekeepers," ends with an almost orchestral, melodic outro that adds an additional level to the album's composition. Likewise, the final track, "Idiocracy," ends the album with murky, mid-tempo, trumpeting peels that give a hint at a sophisticated metal element.
Cheesman's vocals are those bursts of low monosyllabic propane breathing roars that have been stock and standard for the band for the better part of a decade. The vocals are given plenty of space to seethe, yet seem to be obscured partially behind the guitar in the mix.
And as always, the famously bearded Kieran Murray provides the record with another impressive percussive performance. His laser focused, ultra tight style of drumming is not only on par with Cheesman's fretboard freneticism, but his heavy ballistic bombardment of blast beats obviously creates an intense sense of mass and momentum. The breakneck speed of the double kick pedal and tom rolls is absolutely pulverizing. They sound like a jackhammer fucked a typewriter. Even though the palpitating snare is omnipresent throughout, Murray does hit the brakes occasionally allowing stomping, mid-tempo hardcore mosh beats to add that extra layer of depth. The second half of "Mind-Ctrl-Alt-Delete" is a relatively simple beat, yet when paired with Cheesman's chugging riffs, it is absolutely crushing.
The album cover art suggests a more mature layout concept for the band. While the usual cheekiness of the album's song titles implies that the band is still taking the piss out of the modern sociopolitical struggles and follies of western culture, the weightiness of Gatekeepers' cover image might convey something else. The absence of art from frequent collaborator and illustrator, Jasper Swerts is surprising. Swerts' dystopian crust punk pointillistic designs have graced many album covers and t-shirts within the grindcore scene over the past few decades; and usually depict the political clusterfuck that bands like Meth Leppard typically write about. However, Gatekeepers' cover art is a hauntingly stark surrealistic visage of a child with his head being both anatomically destroyed as well as depicting the ruin and rubble of a decimated urbanscape. The obvious allusions to the current genocide in Gaza are palpable. Other interpretations such as the psychological effects of modern technology on developing minds, or the moral corruption of the youth via the rise of fascism and totalitarianism, or the doomed future that awaits the coming generation due to current environmental neglect are all up for grabs.
Gatekeepers is exactly what you would expect from one of the world's most premiere grindcore bands. The fifteen minute full-length is already mandatory listening. Meth Leppard's thrash laced, riff worship cannonry mounted on the treads of blitzkrieg-styled blast beats and micro-milling drumwork put the band in the higher echelon of grindcore acts. They never stay in one place too long and really keep the listener on their toes in a genre that might not generally lend itself to too much unpredictability.
The Australian two piece seemingly can do no wrong as far as writing and performing. The fact that you read this entire review should have been a waste of your time. You should have been streaming Gatekeepers online as soon as it dropped. You should have already pre-ordered the vinyl. You should already know all the songs and already have scratched the band's logo onto the cover of your Trapper Keeper.
Meth Leppard are currently balls deep into their European tour with Travølta and are performing at the world famous annual Obscene Extreme music festival in the Czech Republic this week! The single sided vinyl LP of Gatekeepers is currently available for pre-order on Here And Now! Records and Psychocontrol Records.
FFO: PLF, The Kill, Shit Life
Listen to the album: https://methleppard666.bandcamp.com/album/gatekeepers
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