“Heavy Machine Gun” - Leather Laces
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
Let’s be clear right out of the gate: “Heavy Machine Gun” is not here to mess around. The second single from Leather Laces drops July 25, and it’s two and a half minutes of pure, militarized sonic adrenaline. Forget lyrics, forget structure in the conventional sense — this is not a track you sing along to. This is a drill. A full-body, ears-first, no-prisoners live-fire drill.
From the very first second, Heavy Machine Gun declares its intent: the stomp of marching soldiers fades in, a signal flare in audio form. There’s no wind-up, no warm welcome — it’s straight to full tension. The kind of tension that gets tattooed into your spine. It feels like being thrown into a boot camp designed by Kraftwerk, then remixed by Ministry and given a full hardware upgrade by a synth-addled cyborg.
Leather Laces is not your average band — they're more like a tactical unit. Every member has a codename and a mission. You’ve got _SHOE, the central processor, drum machine whisperer, and sonic archivist. He’s the pulse. The trigger. The metronome of madness. Then there’s DripString, commander of analog grit, whose job seems to be turning up the heat until the whole track sounds like it’s melting at the edges. Chokeloop manages the push and pull — like a general with a dial that controls intensity, knowing exactly when to pull back and when to send the troops charging. Finally, Slughair — the agent of chaos — sprinkles interference and modulations like sonic shrapnel. It’s organized noise, but barely.
The track builds not with layers, but with intent. The guitars aren’t so much played as they are weaponized. The synths don’t dance — they slam. The Linn Drum? Not just a vintage nod, but a battlefield metronome set to mechanical perfection. This thing has no groove, no swing — and that’s the point. It marches. Every beat feels like a footfall, every bar like a mission objective reached.
And there’s no vocalist to cushion the blow. No verses, no chorus, no melodic safe zone to hang your hat on. Just a straight line through an audio warzone. The lack of lyrics doesn’t make it emotionless — it makes it relentless. Leather Laces communicate entirely through movement and pressure. It’s rhythm as a blunt force weapon.
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
Stylistically, it’s somewhere between post-industrial war pop and dystopian soundtrackcore. Think early Nine Inch Nails meets Justice with a taste for military aesthetics and an unhealthy obsession with precision. But there’s also a physicality here that’s rare — this isn’t headphone music. It wants big speakers. Concrete floors. A warehouse with bad lighting. It wants sweat.
The samples of marching soldiers at the beginning and end tie the piece together into something more conceptual than just a beat-driven banger. It’s as if the track exists inside a locked chamber, between two military maneuvers — a soundtrack for the moment when tension becomes motion. You don’t just listen to Heavy Machine Gun. You submit to it.
And just as quickly as it started, it’s gone. No fade out. No resolution. Just cold silence after a sonic assault. It leaves you blinking, maybe breathing a little heavier, maybe asking yourself: What the hell just happened?
This isn’t music for everyone — and Leather Laces clearly don’t care. That’s part of the charm. They’re building a world, a mythology, a movement — and Heavy Machine Gun is a key chapter in that story. It’s intense, stripped of excess, and utterly sure of itself.
If Rocket Launcher was the mission briefing, Heavy Machine Gun is the execution. And what’s next? “Marching in the Fog” arrives August 25. If this track was any indication, you'd better lace up tight. The next assault is already loading.
“Heavy Machine Gun” is available now on all major streaming platforms
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