Artist: Legio Mortis
Title: The Human Creation And The Devil’s Contribution
Genre: Black Metal
Release Date: 15th April 2011
Label: Massacre Records
Album Review
From the sound of the title from LEGIO MORTIS’ fourth album one would be expecting a full on esoteric album along the lines of DEATHSPELL OMEGA, mystical and also heavily engaging. However, this is not the case. Instead, ‘The Human Creation…’ is a very symphonic black metal album that makes plenty of keyboard use and highly energetic guitar melodies along the lines of a band like SOTHIS. The keyboards play a huge part on this band because they are almost present, either when they are adding their tinkling, evil sounding notes to being a backing instrument throughout the tracks, one can always hear them. The guitars on the other hand rapidly chug away, offering a few solos here and there, but really not making much of a standout effort compared to other symphonic or melodic black metal bands like DIMMU BORGIR or WITHERING. Mostly, the attention is meant for the vocals and keyboards with the drums hammering away in the background, but sadly they tend to get lost in the musical mix when everything is going on.
Vocally, fans may have a lot of trouble adjusting to them. They switch between a squeaking snarl and a deeper, more death metal based roar; the latter being much more preferable. If Dani Filth from CRADLE OF FILTH had a slower pace and a deeper pitch to his voice, it would sound just like they do on here (the higher ones at least). There are even a few female vocal appearances here; one is by Liv Kristine of LEAVES EYES on the track ‘Life Denied’, and in a way, it is through her that the track becomes the saving grace of the album. Others like ‘Avenger Of The Oppressed Soul’ and ‘I Am Your God’ don’t do as much because they are not as varied, musically or vocally. The PARADISE LOST cover features some deeper clean vocals and the whole darkened doom metal atmosphere with death metal vocals thrown in, so the gothic atmosphere is kept, but the higher pitched snarl could have been left out. The final track, ‘Thorn In My Eye’, sounds different because it starts out slow and brooding, much more of a better lead in than most of the other tracks that just hammer in. Although the lead in is repetitive throughout the entire track, it is memorable and sticks in the head for some time.
For those who are new to LEGIO MORTIS, they probably aren’t going to enjoy this album for the vocal side; more for the music. Despite the two tending to work against each other for much of this album, the musical side, especially due to the keyboard player, is gothic, dark, and captures the atmosphere of creeping black metal quite well. She (the keyboard player) even contributes some faint, haunting symphonic vocal work on the track ‘Buried Love’, or maybe it is just her amazing keyboard skill. Lyrically, the album bounces between darkness, blasphemy, and twisted Satanic themes, but unfortunately considering ‘From Throat To Cunt’, the album’s credibility seems to be laughed away with such a generic track.
Tracklist
01. Intro 1:06
02. Unholy Four 7:26
03. Avenger Of The Oppressed Souls 3:36
04. Buried Love 4:04
05. Pity The Sadness (Paradise Lost Cover) 4:37
06. Mass Murder 5:28
07. From Throat To Cunt 4:46
08. Wir Brauchen Keine Hirten 3:51
09. Blood Fantasy 4:38
10. I Am Your God 4:52
11. Life Denied 5:28
12. Legio Mortis 5:25
13. Thorn In My Eye 6:06
Line-up
Frank Kaltenecker "Asmodis" - Bass, Guitar, Vocals
Stephanie Knoll "Medina" - Synthesizer
Marco Popp "Tharator" - Vocals
Thomas Rau "Leech" - Guitar
Markus Rossner "Tchort" - Drums
Matze Scheuerer - Guitar
Website
http://www.massacre-records.com
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 6
Sound: 5
Total: 5.5 / 10
Comments powered by CComment