As LANDMVRKS gear up for their biggest headline tour yet, K! join the French metalcore stars for a trip around their hometown to find out about the ‘Marseille touch’ that’s got them here, why they still feel like underdogs despite their success, and how they’re only just getting started…
Marseille has plenty of landmarks. Facing the shimmering deep blue of the Mediterranean Sea, France’s second-largest city is a dream destination for holidaymakers, historians, cultural explorers, families and creatives alike. Even as winter starts rolling in, when Kerrang! escape the UK for one final dose of sunshine and sea air before the year is out.
Chauffeuring us round the sights of his city is LANDMVRKS bassist Rudy Purkart, telling K! to look out for his white Citroën Picasso, where he’s kept the passenger seat free. Squashed into the back are Paul Cordebard (guitar), Kévin D’Agostino (drums) and today’s photographer, Anthony Arbet.
“Marseille is an old city,” begins nominated tour guide Rudy, before locking in to calmly complete a particularly tight parallel park. He nails it in one take, and he needs to – because Marseille’s other drivers are notoriously impatient. Navigating the bustling traffic on their motorbikes are Nico Exposito (guitar) and Flo Salfati (vocals) – “he’s always late,” sighs Paul – who complete LANDMVRKS, and join us at our first pit stop.
A stone’s throw from the beach, we arrive at the Skate Park du Prado. You’ll recognise it if you’ve played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, a fun fact that three-fifths of LANDMVRKS make sure to tell us on separate occasions. They’re extremely proud of their city, and the iconic focal points that have helped showcase Marseille’s culture on a global level.
Before LANDMVRKS formed in 2014, this city was all that Flo knew.
“I grew up in a really urban [area], living between cars, noise and street culture,” he recalls. “Right now, we all realise that it's part of our life and our art. When I listen to the first album [2016’s Hollow], I can visualise our recording studio and the venues – the first, tiny, underground bars.”
Gazing out into the Mediterranean, Nico reminisces on Les Vagues – their old live intro, which you can hear on the deluxe edition of third album Lost In The Waves – which translates to ‘the waves’. Even the artwork to their most recent record, The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been, takes inspiration from the seafront.
“We asked the artist to print those colours – yellow, blue,” he reveals. “You can find the original version on the wall at streetwear store Goudron,” adds Paul, hyping it up as the “best shop in town”.
Released in April, that fourth LP helped elevate LANDMVRKS to the crest of the burgeoning new wave of metalcore. Born out of Flo’s struggles with writer’s block and depression, cathartic songs like Sulfur and A Line In The Dust are on course to become the band’s biggest. Meanwhile, the renewed incorporation of hip-hop and nu-metal soundscapes on Sombre 16 and The Great Unknown signals a band at their most fearless.
Tomorrow (December 4), they’ll embark on the biggest headline tour in their history, including a one-off UK date at London’s Roundhouse. Coming along for the ride are Split Chain, Pain Of Truth and astonishingly, Underoath, whose willingness to play second fiddle exemplifies the respect that LANDMVRKS have earned.
“This is our revenge comeback!” jokes Flo, remembering the sound issues that plagued their Roundhouse support slot with While She Sleeps in 2019. “It's so rewarding and insane to see the band growing, to say that now we can book the Roundhouse.”
“We always feel like challengers,” chimes in Rudy.
“We come onstage really pumped and excited,” agrees Flo. “Let's go and take this opportunity to show more people. Like Rudy said: underdogs – always.”
After fronting a hardcore band called Hate In Front, Flo’s motivation to start LANDMVRKS actually stemmed from his desire to play guitar – before he accidentally ending up behind the mic again. He recruited Nico, invited Rudy for an audition, and Paul and Kévin respectively joined the band in 2017 and 2019, completing the search for five musicians who burn with that same passion and dedication.
“The goal, at first, was to make it professional,” smiles Nico, who now proudly calls it his day job.
“Every day, we talk about what we can do to be bigger,” adds Kévin, the boldest of the five with his words.
But while all their dreams are becoming reality, precious little seems to have changed from those formative years and that collective search for a serious project.
“We are really blessed to have such a good relationship, because it's not always the case,” suggests Flo.
“We've seen a lot of different [dynamics],” echoes Kévin. “Sometimes, bands hate each other. Some people hate touring.”
“We love eating together, a lot of coffee,” butts in Paul.
“They're talking about coffee all the time,” sighs Flo, who – alongside Kévin – much prefers a hot chocolate.
“It’s so rewarding and insane to see the band growing, to say that now we can book the Roundhouse”
Name-checking Petrin Couchette and APT.20 as their regular hotspots for a café au lait, they point out The Red Lion, the seaside Irish pub where they often grab a beer in the summer. This is a band who do everything together. Even when Nico has a tennis competition, Flo will go to watch, supporting him from the corner until his final point.
In the context of LANDMVRKS, however, Flo is very much the star player. Endearingly humble, the he finds himself commanding thousands of fans, halfway along the path to stardom previously trodden by the likes of Loz Taylor, Sam Carter and Winston McCall. So is the man who inadvertently took the vocal reins ready to step up to the plate?
“It’s still not easy, as a shy [person],” he admits. “The frontman has to take care of himself a lot more than the other boys. It's been 10 years. Now, I feel comfortable being onstage, but the first few years? I was trying to hide onstage as much as possible. I was happy to do it, but it's something you only learn onstage. You have to practice.”
From Marseille hip-hop groups IAM and Fonky Family to juggernauts like Linkin Park and Metallica, he rattles through the artists that shaped him. We ask if he idolised Chester Bennington or James Hetfield, much like many young fans now look up to Flo.
“Stick To Your Guns, Comeback Kid, and also the Madball, Terror and Hatebreed era – those were the frontmen I really looked [up to] when I first performed,” he reflects. “Mixed with Metallica and Slipknot, this raw energy. You can hear that LANDMVRKS is a melting pot of all of this. You're also really influenced by your local scene, when you’re young. Those guys probably pushed me to perform more than the big bands in the U.S.”
Always determined to ensure his bandmates have equal input into the conversation, Flo pulls K! aside. The band have just finished their shoot at our second location, the Vallon des Auffes, an idyllic, tucked-away fishing port bordered by glistening rock formations and some quaint restaurants.
“You asked me earlier, ‘Who am I, outside of LANDMVRKS?’” he reminds us. It’s a question Flo shied away from at the time, instead letting Rudy explain his pivot from Psychology PhD student in Montreal to full-time bassist.
The answer, it turns out, is that he’s still unsure. He once took offence, he tells us, when a friend asked him the exact same question. For a whole decade, the kid who once tried his luck with basketball and still obsesses over manga has known no alternative to pouring the weight of his heart into this band.
Even inside LANDMVRKS, Flo has had his doubts as a songwriter, which informed the process behind The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been.
“I had to do it the hard way, to put out this album,” he ponders. “We were scared, burned out… I was in a negative space, and the boys – especially Nico – were like, ‘No, it's just your take. You'll see.’ And now I see it!”
That inherent brotherhood and mutual encouragement helps explain the confidence with which LANDMVRKS talk about the present-day task at hand. They have to deliver the greatest shows of their career. Afterwards, they’ll set about trying to eclipse their fourth album.
“I like to work under pressure,” beams Paul. “We've all dreamt of doing this, so you don't want to give it up.”
“Even if I feel dead, I’m gonna give everything,” declares Kévin, explaining the responsibility the band feel towards their fanbase.
“That's the fuel,” continues Flo. “They are really [devoted], but also very kind. A lot of artists are bullied on the internet, and we are not. They are always open-minded about our music, because sometimes we do rap, a ballad, death metal, and they go, ‘Give me more.’”
And more is what fans will get with the band heading out across the arenas of Europe with Architects next year, before headlining the almost 7,000-capacity Le Zénith, a rite of passage in the Parisian gig ladder. But nothing fazes LANDMVRKS. When it comes to the live show, these level-headed friends have an enviable level of trust in their capabilities.
“Our families constantly say it feels that we’re all connected onstage, having fun, and that it's something that we share with the crowd,” explains Flo.
“Nothing bad can happen,” assures Kévin. “If you feel bad, you have four brothers.”
Today’s endpoint is Le Cours Julien, Marseille’s colourful, alternative district that’s dedicated to street art and graffiti. LANDMVRKS shoot individual portraits down Rue Crudère, laughing at Rudy for his model-like pose, while Nico styles his pink quiff in the mirror of his bandmate’s sunglasses. Flo’s parents soon join the party, as we tuck into some pizza to mark the end of the tour.
Around the corner is Espace Julien, a venue you might recognise from the live album LANDMVRKS recorded there in 2019.
“It's the dream venue, when you are from Marseille,” explains Nico, before the rest of the band wax lyrical about their memories of Alexisonfire, Chimaira and Gojira playing that same room.
It’s one of plenty, ahem, landmark moments that have gotten the band to this point. Another was February’s Paris show at L’Olympia, where Kévin’s grandmother used to regularly attend gigs. There is one flashpoint, however, that tipped the balance.
“Hellfest,” comes the unanimous answer. When Bad Omens cancelled their 2024 slot on short notice, LANDMVRKS stepped in to save the day, rewarded with the same font size on the poster as Corey Taylor. Approximately 50,000 people would bear witness to the moment that “changed everything,” reckons Rudy.
“We all cried after playing, and the show was perfect,” enthuses Paul. “The planets aligned that day.”
“We thought we would be anxious and stressed, but once we stepped onstage – gone,” says Flo. “That's when we realised that it was the right moment for us to do it. All those years training and touring was the rehearsal for that moment.”
“We had to prove we belong here,” continues Nico. “‘Do they deserve this?’ We’re gonna show you.”
You can compare LANDMVRKS’ story so far with the hard-won journeys of While She Sleeps or Architects: a long march of patience and uncompromising dedication to their craft. Now, with four albums under their belt, they’re ready to double-down on Nico’s promise and demonstrate why they belong at metalcore’s head table.
“Into the metalcore world, we try to bring another energy,” urges Flo. “Like the bands in the 2000s did with the nu-metal stuff, when they crossed them together. We try to bring this street-style, urban and underground vibe that most metalcore bands don't do, because it's more polished, I guess.”
“What the majority of other ones don't have is the ‘Marseille touch’,” continues Nico, pointing at the frontman. “Which is why he’s doing graffiti onstage…”
After five hours in their company, watching them crack jokes and coast through this tiring afternoon with the coolest of heads, we have an underlying sense of what that ‘Marseille touch’ might be. Nico – who still has plenty to say as the sun begins to set – puts it in his own words.
“The people on the street, the colour,” he gestures. “We have a reputation of being really chill, if we compare to the people living in the north.” Proving his point, LANDMVRKS’ undercover northerner, Paul, has darted off to make sure he catches his train to Paris.
It’s little wonder the band’s dogged approach has paid off over the past decade, underpinned by calmness and the belief that their star will shine through. And it’s certainly an attitude that the wider world could do with, in an era where we all seemed to be rushed off our feet and one rainy day away from burning out. The simple solution might be moving to Marseille.
“The weather might be the best in France,” boasts Flo. “It's peaceful for your mind.”
“How many times [did we go] to the sea just before the studio?” asks Nico. “You arrive in the studio, and you’re relaxed.”
For a city grounded in hip-hop, LANDMVRKS have smashed through the glass ceiling of what a Marseille metal band can achieve. They have goals for their hometown, and the wheels are already in motion. Nico puts on MVRKSFEST, while Flo offers reduced rates to engineer, produce and co-write for local bands, offering his expertise to the next generation.
“It could become a metal city one day,” nods Kévin.
“The bigger we get, the more we can use this strength to help give back,” adds Nico. “I want MVRKSFEST to be a really big metal festival. A lot of people are going to come to Marseille to watch bands.”
“We're proud of our city, our scene, and we want people all over the world to notice that there's a lot of talent in our city,” agrees an impassioned Flo.
Within that crop of talent, the LANDMARKS beacon burns brightest. Through their arena-slaying songwriting, unshielded lyricism and aggressive riff work, they will surely keep climbing the ladder, safe in the knowledge that their every move now leaves metalcore in a healthier place than they found it.
“We try to give some relief to people,” voices Flo, when asked what he wants his band to represent in 2025. “When we were all younger, we couldn't wait for the day we would go to see our favourite band. It was magical. An easy answer, but the right answer, if we can provide that to kids [who] can relate to the lyrics so they can feel better.”
After standing in those same shoes, LANDMVRKS have made it to the other side. A position of strength, unity and form, primed to create new chapters in this fairytale that they hope will last forever, following Iron Maiden and playing shows into their 70s. To that end, they’re just getting warmed up.
“We’re still not the biggest band,” explains Flo. “There’s still a lot of work… also, there’s one thing. If LANDMVRKS ends now, I'll be happy with everything we did. We all have this mindset. Even though we try to push further, we're so happy with what we did.”
“You dreamed about playing Espace Julien – you did it three times,” dreams away Kévin.
You also dreamed about Hellfest, you dreamed about L’Olympia – you did it. So what’s next?
“We feel like a part of the scene now. There are big bands, small bands – but we are with these bands. We are here.”
LANDMVRKS tour the UK and Europe from December 4 – 19. The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is out now via Arising Empire
Read this next:
