How Little Will It Take

Part of the Providence scene that spawned noise as a new catchall genre term — whether they liked it or not — Landed were also more of a below-the-radar pleasure, releasing two albums on Vermiform in the late '90s as well as a variety of one-offs for singles and compilations. How Little Will It Take pulls together these scattered tracks plus a few previously unavailable ones to demonstrate what they had to offer, and they definitely fall on the not-so-secretly epic metal side of the Load empire. All it takes is a little scraggliness around the corners to make things seem rougher than they are, but that in turn is what makes songs like the collection's opener "Bahdi Odour" and the title track enjoyable treats for the feedback and scuzz inclined. At the same time, they also sound like they're working in a vein done more effectively by such kindred spirits as Unwound and even, at their most structured and relentless, the towering Drive Like Jehu — it's a good listen but not always the most memorable one as a result, and at their slowest and sludgiest they're really not all that different from a lot of other bands of the time. Still, at their best, like the ever more tightly wound "The Biggest S**t" and the high-speed bass-led growl "Dairy 4 Dinner," their energy carries all before it. There are also the accidents of history at work — the tracks from the previously released EP on Load, Times I Despise, were recorded just a couple of weeks before September 11, 2001, and having the opening number from that be called "War/Us Vs. Them (and You)" seems not necessarily prescient, but at least all too perversely appropriate. [A bonus CD version was also released.]