Massacre/Sound Pollution
Thrash success LEGION OF THE DAMNED has been at it since 2004, not 1990 as could be expected. They rose from the ashes of OCCULT, another fine band, to focus on horror themes and explosive thrash. This is their fifth album, and the success of their past four plus this new one recently got them booked on the bill of Sweden Rock Festival 2011. Sounds more than intriguing…
Repeated passages of spoken words in a chanting tone open the proceedings in “… This Is the Age of…”. Night of the Sabbath” has a lot of bite, the scorching vocals courtesy of Maurice Swinkels and lack of double bass drums add to the retro effect. It echoes of quite a lot of old thrash giants. “War Is in My Blood” follows suit, and all you have to do is bang your head. The song titles must be heavily inspired by SLAYER, among other loans from Araya & Co. There might be some questions raised that a lot of this has been well and truly done before. But to make fresh sounds of old ingredients has payed off well to the likes of HAMMERFALL. Some more refrains would have benefitted them in songs like “Holy Blood, Holy War” though. The Dutchmen head for fine Bay Area pace in “Killzone”, which becomes a favorite. As a whole this has infectious grooves. A melodic background pattern makes wonders in “The Hand of Darkness”, “Lord of the Flies” also impresses me. It is really pleasant to get acquainted to LEGION OF THE SLAYED…sorry DAMNED.
Track List
Descent into Chaos
Night of the Sabbath
War Is in My Blood
Shrapnel Rain
Holy Blood, Holy War
Killzone
Lord of the Flies
Desolation Empire
The Hand of Darkness
Repossessed
Bonus Track
Legion of the Damned
www.massacre-records.com www.myspace.com/legionofthedamned
