LANDMVRKS: The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been

Assembling the dismembered limbs of their single, Creature, well over a year before beginning the production of their latest record, the members of French metalcore collective LANDMVRKS realised that in order to create life, it needed to meet its maker. The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is an album that embodies the damaging spiral of mental health, whilst putting yourself into your art becomes as much of a struggle as it is an enduring strength.



“We had a bit of time off, but it wasn’t enough.” Bassist Rudy Purkat explains on a video call with guitarist Paul ‘C Wilson’ Cordebard. On a much-needed day in the sun away from their US tour, the pair are lounging in a lakeside Airbnb somewhere between North Carolina and Virginia. Alongside vocalist Florent Salfati, guitarist Nicolas Exposito and drummer Kévin D’Agostino, they are a long way from their Marseille home. Since the release of 2021’s Lost In The Wave, they’ve rarely had a moment away from the band.



As the band were touring for much of the production for their latest record, The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been was mostly made on the road using their own “carry on” recording station, with parts of the album coming together anywhere they could – in the US, in Europe, and even ten minutes before going on stage.

Taking advantage of every opportune moment possible was key to its creation, including their feature with Matt Welsh from WHILE SHE SLEEPS for their track A Line In The Dust. Paul says, “he’s a very good friend of ours, like when we wrote that song, we knew that we needed a feature of a very specific voice. We were playing a festival together, and we had the recording station back in the bus and so we just asked him to come over and lay down vocals.”

The band were keen to experiment with incorporating new genres into their music, Paul explains. “We didn’t know where we wanted to go at first, so we just tried a whole lot of different things we hadn’t done before. Like I remember on the first demos, we tried pop, synth wave, dance and then we found our way through the process to find a sound that was good for the album.” Taking influence from KENDRICK LAMAR and French hip-hop, the band’s love of rap would add texture to the album, just as much as their love of 2000s rock like BLINK-182 and BOXCAR RACER. Paul’s favourite record off the new album is Blood Red. “It is the most powerful emo vibe we have ever done.”
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Staying true to their metalcore roots, the band have polished their signature sound, with Reqiem becoming one of the heaviest tracks they have ever made. “People are going to be surprised by the chorus,” Paul starts. “Flo is taking a whole different range of his voice, it’s like a very deep growl with blasting and shit.” Of course, the band took great influence from GOJIRA whilst producing the track. Since COVID, the French metal scene is the strongest it’s ever been. Citing bands like RESOLVE, TEN. 56 and NOVELISTS, Rudy describes their relationship as family. “We’re all really close friends. We are very lucky to have that scene growing and GOJIRA as a leader of that scene internationally.”

The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is no doubt the darkest record they have written to date. The record is brought to life with the creation of their single Creature, which Rudy describes as “an embodiment of fears and emotions, the behaviour we don’t want to continue to have, embodied into a creature and [physically] becoming its home. This is the process of trying to fight it and overcome it.”


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In conversation about the final track of the record, Funeral, Rudy adds, “we kind of liked the fact that the album ended with a funeral. There is nothing after a funeral. There is just death.” The descent into a bad mental health state- a spiral of negative thoughts and feelings – is the ongoing story of the album.

Paired with vocalist Flo’s meaningful vocals, the hope for the record would speak to their audience, as a collective struggle that everyone could have during their life and the strength to overcome it. Whilst he didn’t believe the record was a ‘concept album’, the band had a lot of fun putting together visuals, messing around with playing god for their dark creation.

When asked what is next for the band, Rudy jokes, “taking some time off. Maybe?”

However, this will have to wait a little longer. LANDMVRKS are heading back on tour this summer for the European festival circuit, with a stop in the UK for Slam Dunk. “It’s like our European Warped Tour. It’s very short, but you get all together with the bands you listen to and make a lot of new friends. It’s very easy to make friends there.”

“I think it’s a very special festival, compared to all the others in Europe. Slam Dunk is more of a mix of all the different genres of music in our scene. It’s really cool to be able to connect with bands like THE STARTING LINE and NECK DEEP. You’re able to watch their set and talk to them. It’s a very cool experience.”

The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is out now via Arising Empire. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS120 here:

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