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The Legion: A Bliss To Suffer Black Metal Listenable Records April 27th, 2009
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Review
A Bliss To Suffer is the third full-length release by the Swedish Black Metal outfit The Legion, about the same amount of time between the group's first and second full-length releases. While the band dabbles in utilizing blast beats through most of their music, there's something different and very special about this release. On A Bliss To Suffer, we find a more matured The Legion with less variances in their music, and more of a structurally sound effort that does it's job well, both in overall atmosphere, and quality of the product. But, this doesn't mean that it's an amazing album. On this release, the band recorded the entire album themselves, and that may very well have been a good choice as the material on here is rather impressive as a whole. While there isn't anything too original on the recordings, the thing that makes this album stand out is how well it's done, and the overall feel of the album. Clearly taking from many of today's blast beat Black Metal acts like Marduk, as well as the symphonic elements of bands like Emperor thanks to the keyboards used on this release, like those that kick off the track "Blood, Be Gone!". A good majority of the album is actually at a rather slow pace that only seems like it's going fast because of the insane drumming utilized throughout. The Legion does have a few tracks here and there that are much faster, as well as moments where the band bridges from the slower pace into a blast-beat frenzy, such as on "Man Beast", so if you start to grow weary of the slower paced tracks that start to sound like one another, you have these few and far between moments to lighten your spirits. Honestly, A Bliss To Suffer is far from a bad album. The only problem with it boils down to the simple fact that the songs start to sound similar after a while. "Shining Redemption", "Blood, Be Gone!" and "A Curse for the Dead" are the first few tracks that really stand out and also don't quite come off as something you already heard on the release. These tracks also come off as the more haunting ones of the album. While many others on here have a rather dismal feel to them, these, as well as a few others, work very well with the low keyboards that hit in the background, such as during the guitar solo on "A Curse for the Dead". The only track on here that really doesn't pull it's weight, regardless of musical similarities between the other tracks, would be the song "The Reaping of Flesh and Blood", which is the slowest song on the entire release. Sadly, the song feels a little lackluster compared to the rest of the album and doesn't really pick up until the second chorus where the guitars and keyboards start to become more dramatic, then revert right back to normal again. A Bliss To Suffer is more of a CD that you would just listen to casually, as it doesn't really breathe a very intense atmosphere. The haunting keyboards and random introductory sound effects do aid in creating a rather dark feel to the music. If you are a fan of The Legion then you may enjoy the direction that was taken for this release, and if not, you'll still enjoy the solid backbone that the music has, as well as the well performed blast beats that go hand in hand with the well paced . The only thing keeping this album down would be a lack of diversity in the tracks, and the only track that had any substantial diversity is just not all that entertaining.
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