Lawnmower Deth: the kings of knob-gag thrash-parody are back

Nottinghamshire stupidcore veterans Lawnmower Deth return after 28-year tea break with Blunt Cutters

Lawnmower Deth: Blunt Cutters cover art
(Image: © Cherry Red)

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Despite being the least prolific thrash band in history, Lawnmower Deth still make a uniquely appealing racket, blending gloriously vulgar Viz-comic humour with properly gnarly speed-punk riffs. 

After first disbanding in 1993, the Nottinghamshire stupidcore veterans have been active again as a hilarious live act since 2008, but Blunt Cutters is their first new album in 28 years.

Alongside reassuringly juvenile lyrics abut chocolate logs and nosh-offs, these creaky-kneed old-timers mock their own advancing years and ageing fan base on tracks such as Into The Pit, at times sounding like Sleaford Mods with tooth-rattling guitars. But there is craft and ambition behind the shouty self-mockery. 

Epic dystopian anthems like Raise Your Snails and Agency Of C.O.B. could be Muse on a Motorhead budget, while the title track is a majestic glam-rock beast that, impressively, resists using the obvious rhyme for ‘blunt’. 

Classy when they need to be, smarter than they pretend to be, these national treasures of knob-gag metal are long overdue knighthoods.

Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton has been writing about all things rock for more than 30 years, starting in the late Eighties at the New Musical Express (RIP) when it was still an annoyingly pompous analogue weekly paper printed on dead trees and sold in actual physical shops. For the last decade or so he has been a regular contributor to Classic Rock magazine. He has also written about music and film for Uncut, Vox, Prog, The Quietus, Electronic Sound, Rolling Stone, The Times, The London Evening Standard, Wallpaper, The Film Verdict, Sight and Sound, The Hollywood Reporter and others, including some even more disreputable publications.