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Same sound, different band, far less enthusiasm.-
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| Of Legends: Stranded |
Hardcore, Deathcore
Season of Mist Records
March 29th, 2011
- Nothing Matters - 3:05
- Death Eyes - 2:52
- Off Guard - 1:44
- Save the Humans - 1:58
- We Wish Death - 2:58
- False God - 2:03
- Carpe Noctum - 2:17
- Cannibal King - 2:57
- Consecro - 2:19
- The Last Leader - 2:40
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| Review Information |
Release length: 24:50
Review posted on March 26th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 4/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Stranded (2011)
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| Review |
When people hear the term Deathcore, many immediately flock to the staple bands like Job for a Cowboy, Emmure and Whitechapel. There are really no other bands out there that stand on their own in the world, and Of Legends really proves to be no exception. Yes, this one isn't really a strictly Deathcore album, showing of traces of Hardcore, but there's no denying that it's the firstimpression you'll find on this recordin. Drawing heavily from the somewhat technical and insanely repetitive Deathcore Groove riffs from Job for a Cowboy and Whitechapel, Of Legends presents a modern, calculated audio threat with the release of their debut album, Stranded, through Candlelight Records. While the official pressing of the CD will be in stores March 29th, a digital version is made available one month prior, which is a growing concern for many in the music world who hate digital downloads. But, does Of Legends do anything at all different to make even one of these versions worth buying?
First of all, the Deathcore here is generic, pure and simple. There is absolutely nothing new here at all except the fact that the band makes the music sound even more jumbled and confusing then either of the aforementioned obvious influences possibly could. The album starts off with "Nothing Matters", which just sounds like the band screwing around in the recording studio with their gear warming up, then going right into the first set of repetitive Groove Deathcore chords that still sound like the band warming up and screwing around. The music on the song seems to show a more calculated Mathcore influence, but it's not that strong an approach given songs like "Save the Humans" which features some decent Death Metal music here and there. This is the first track on here that is genuinely enjoyable no matter how you look at it, trough a Deathcore, Mathcore, or Hardcore perspective. Of course, the most enjoyable track is one of the shortest songs, coming in at just under two minutes. Luckily it's not the only one, as "Consecro" is a good track as well with more of a Mathcore foundation, but that foundation seems to take the song and shake it wildly, going from a more Punk heavy Hardcore influence to the Groove heavy Deathcore and varying between them to the point that it will make the listener's head spin.
The track lengths on this album often become a bit of a joke, but it also becomes clear that it's intentional and not just laziness of not being able to write music that lasts longer then a traditional fast paced Hardcore song. Many of the songs on here seem to bleed in from one another, or just hammer in the second the previous song ends. So, really, it makes it seem more like there's a bit of a stronger flow to the album then how it would appear just looking at the ten song tracklist, and it genuinely does work in the album's favor. While it's hard to get into "Nothing Matters" and even "Off Guard" with their technical repetitive Groove Deathcore chords and drum kicks from start to finish, when the music does pick up for "Save the Humans", then slams into "We Wish Death", the music becomes more structured, and even a little more enjoyable since that good track led into a heavier track that stood out in the same manner without letting the intensity die between the two tracks. It becomes a smart move in the long run, but not enough to save this album.
Stranded also really just seems to lack energy. The music is performed well, but the only consistent element of the band that feels like there's energy to it happens to be with the vocals, which are in a typical screaming fashion. There's not much of a range to the vocals, but you can feel anger in the voice, and it works well to enhance the music. However, many songs on here lack that same kind of energy. "Save the Humans" and "Carpe Noctum" really are two fo the very few songs on here where the band genuinely seems like they are enthusiastic about the music, and not just that they decided to write a riff, record it and some drums to work with it, threw in a breakdown, then told someone to scream into the mic along with the music. On top of that, the band also incorporates random sound effects here and there on the album, and mare times then not they sound pointless and tacked on, like with "Carpe Noctum". Of course, while they feel tacked on, you can also look at them as some of the moments to determine which song is which, as, again, many of the songs sound so similar to one another, outside the more energetic tracks, that one could easily use them as track markers, having a random white noise effect on a track, or a random in studio effect on a guitar to give it different distortion, like on "Cannibal King", a song that only really picks up and stands out at the end after that randomly distorted guitar that honestly feels tacked on at the last minute with a repeated loop put in after given the rather awkward gap of silence prior to it.
While Of Legends isn't a strictly Deathcore album, it does take from some of those bands that made it popular, but manages to still be a Hardcore band that seems to take a Mathcore route, but nowhere near as expansive a one as Dillinger Escape Plan has done in the past. Between generic, unenergetic and uninspiring groovey Deathcore and Hardcore passages, the band's music becomes a creation that is a little harder to understand, but eventually favoring the latter more then the first of two options. The songs are bland for either genre, and will have you pining for any of the aforementioned bands in any of the aforementioned styles. While the vocalist brings a nice amount of energy, and the music sometimes brings an equal amount to the mix, there's just nothing new, original, or even all that interesting with this album outside the way one song ends and shifts into the next song on roughly half the tracks on the release. Stranded is nowhere near perfection, but for the positive elements on it, the release does show some underlying potential for Of Legends.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Season of Mist Records.
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