With bands such as Mortuary Drape, Forgotten Tomb, Nazgul, Funeral Oration, etc., Italy has churned out some quality black metal bands. Legion of Darkness are on par with the aforementioned bands, yet are unfortunately still largely overlooked. Formed in 2001, Legion of Darkness have only released one full length album, Cantus, so far. Particularly when compared to other modern black metal, Cantus is a GREAT album, though it easily surpasses much of the second tier 90s bm in quality. In fact, it is so good that I would go so far as to say that it is most definitely one of my top 10 favorite black metal albums of all time.
Legion of Darkness play epic melodic black metal without keyboards, like many of the bigger Swedish second wave bm bands did. However, whereas Swedish melodic bm possessed an icy, cold quality, Legion of Darkness' music has a warm, yet undeniably melancholic feel to it. Many of the riffs are tremolo riffs in a major key. Once in a while, palm muted dm-ish chug riffs are thrown in, and make for an interesting contrast. There are also plenty of slower paced typical bm passages. The variations in tempo make the album more interesting than if it were a constant barrage of blasting melodic bm. Yes, there is a lot of blasting on this album, but it does not sound out of place, and at no point comes even close to drowning out the guitars. This is not norsecore in any way, shape, or form. There are even occasional clean vocals on this album, but they sound great and fit perfectly. This CD only has six songs on it (including an intro and outro), and three of them are over ten minutes in length. But the music is interesting and dynamic enough that the songs never get boring.
If you are looking for Darkthrone worship, this CD may disappoint. But if you are looking for interesting epic melodic bm, you definitely need to check this CD out.
97/100
Legion of Darkness play epic melodic black metal without keyboards, like many of the bigger Swedish second wave bm bands did. However, whereas Swedish melodic bm possessed an icy, cold quality, Legion of Darkness' music has a warm, yet undeniably melancholic feel to it. Many of the riffs are tremolo riffs in a major key. Once in a while, palm muted dm-ish chug riffs are thrown in, and make for an interesting contrast. There are also plenty of slower paced typical bm passages. The variations in tempo make the album more interesting than if it were a constant barrage of blasting melodic bm. Yes, there is a lot of blasting on this album, but it does not sound out of place, and at no point comes even close to drowning out the guitars. This is not norsecore in any way, shape, or form. There are even occasional clean vocals on this album, but they sound great and fit perfectly. This CD only has six songs on it (including an intro and outro), and three of them are over ten minutes in length. But the music is interesting and dynamic enough that the songs never get boring.
If you are looking for Darkthrone worship, this CD may disappoint. But if you are looking for interesting epic melodic bm, you definitely need to check this CD out.
97/100
