Gravity retaining wall with geogrids has showed excellent seismic performance from Wenchuan great earthquake. However, seismic damage mechanism of this kind of wall is not sufficiently clear. In view of this, a large shaking table test of the gravity retaining wall with geogrids to reinforce the subgrade slope was carried out, and based on the Hilbert-Huang transform and the marginal spectrum theory, the energy identification method of the slope dynamic failure mode was studied. The results show that the geogrids can effectively reduce displacement and rotation of the retaining wall, and it can effectively absorb the energy of the ground movement when combined with the surrounding soil. In addition, it also reveals the failure development of the gravity retaining wall with geogrids to reinforce the subgrade slope. The damage started in the deep zone near the geogrids, and then gradually extended to the surface of the subgrade slope and other zones, finally formed a continuous failure surface along the geogrids. The analysis results of the failure mode identified by the Hilbert marginal spectrum are in good consistency with the experimental results, which prove that the Hilbert marginal spectrum can be applied to obtain the seismic damage mechanism of slope.