After releasing their debut Cantus (originally a demo) Legion of Darkness are back once again. The band were kind enough to send me this three song demo, Merides, which is something of a sampling of their upcoming CD. I have listened to this CD many times to get a good sense of it, and now feel I am finally ready to review it. As we only have three songs here, I will provide a brief description of each one.
First up is Sentenced to Eternity, which begins with slower paced, melodic, melancholic riffs, almost akin depressive black metal. The vocals are fairly standard for black metal, and fitting of the music. There is a brief clean vocal passage before the tempo picks up around 3:30, morphing into a high speed melodic black metal sound. Things slow down once again, only to speed up again soon thereafter, with the melodic, melancholic element the consistent factor throughout the track. The song ends with a nice, almost classical sounding piano passage very fitting of the overall atmosphere of the song. Clocking in at 11:23, the song is a soundscape of many different riffs and tempos (as opposed to two or three riffs repeated over and over again droning on throughout the duration of the song), never becoming monotonous, and keeping the listener interested. Writing a song of such length that actually remains interesting and retains the listeners attention throughout its duration is no easy task. But Legion of Darkness pull it off flawlessly here.
Up next is Songs of War. Much like the first track, it begins with midpaced, melodic and melancholic riffing, and evolves into a nice mix of fast and midpaced passages, with the occasional well performed clean vocal passage. The biggest difference between this track and the first track is the incorporation of folk instrumentation and violins. It is incorporated tastefully in the right places and is not overdone. This is not symphonic black metal; this is epic, melodic black metal with pagan metal elements. The song closes with a calm acoustic ending, leading into Ithica, which seems to serve as the folkish, acoustic outro to the album. Again we have folk instrumentation, and the acoustic guitarwork at times sounds like it would not be out of place on a Primordial album, though with a less Cetlic, more Mediterranean feel. Overall it is well written and executed, very fitting of the bands pagan black metal influenced sound.
This demo is only a sampling of the upcoming full length. And if all the songs on the upcoming full length are on par with what we have here, then we are in for a great CD. I wish the band the best of luck in their search for a label, because this material is too good to not be heard.
First up is Sentenced to Eternity, which begins with slower paced, melodic, melancholic riffs, almost akin depressive black metal. The vocals are fairly standard for black metal, and fitting of the music. There is a brief clean vocal passage before the tempo picks up around 3:30, morphing into a high speed melodic black metal sound. Things slow down once again, only to speed up again soon thereafter, with the melodic, melancholic element the consistent factor throughout the track. The song ends with a nice, almost classical sounding piano passage very fitting of the overall atmosphere of the song. Clocking in at 11:23, the song is a soundscape of many different riffs and tempos (as opposed to two or three riffs repeated over and over again droning on throughout the duration of the song), never becoming monotonous, and keeping the listener interested. Writing a song of such length that actually remains interesting and retains the listeners attention throughout its duration is no easy task. But Legion of Darkness pull it off flawlessly here.
Up next is Songs of War. Much like the first track, it begins with midpaced, melodic and melancholic riffing, and evolves into a nice mix of fast and midpaced passages, with the occasional well performed clean vocal passage. The biggest difference between this track and the first track is the incorporation of folk instrumentation and violins. It is incorporated tastefully in the right places and is not overdone. This is not symphonic black metal; this is epic, melodic black metal with pagan metal elements. The song closes with a calm acoustic ending, leading into Ithica, which seems to serve as the folkish, acoustic outro to the album. Again we have folk instrumentation, and the acoustic guitarwork at times sounds like it would not be out of place on a Primordial album, though with a less Cetlic, more Mediterranean feel. Overall it is well written and executed, very fitting of the bands pagan black metal influenced sound.
This demo is only a sampling of the upcoming full length. And if all the songs on the upcoming full length are on par with what we have here, then we are in for a great CD. I wish the band the best of luck in their search for a label, because this material is too good to not be heard.
