So what condiment should I eat my hat with?
Legion of the Damned are a Dutch four piece thrash metal band that have been doing the rounds since 2004 and up until know have never really done anything enterprising to warrant my undivided attention.
However a new track ‘Doom Priest’ surfaced on one of my youtube surfing days and it’s Behemoth-ish Death Metal vibe intrigued me enough to give the Legion another try by spinning this their seventh album Ravenous Plague.
And boy I’m glad that I did!
After an intro track consisting of the standard dramatic orchestral tension builder, all hell is let loose on ‘Howling For Armageddon’’ as it rips into gear in a very “German” style of thrash (Slayer via Destruction via Possessed), and it sounds absolutely huge thanks to an impressive production job by Andy Classon (Stage-One-Studio’s) while a change in guitarist (Richard Ebisch has been replaced by Twan Van Geel) seems to have been the inspiration they needed as the RIFFS come barreling out of the speakers with incredible ferocity so much so that their intensity and variation makes it all the more impressive that they only have the singular guitarist in their ranks, plus he chucks in some dive-bomb solos for good measure, all backed up by an impressively tight rhythm section.
Admittedly all these songs clock in at over four minutes and feel possibly about a minute too long in places so by the time the fifth track ‘Ravenous Abomination’ has battered you senseless you’d be forgiven for wanting something to mix up the formula and that's exactly when they drop in the afore mentioned ‘Doom Priest’, but after that though it's back to the balls out thrash for another five tracks!
It's big, it's loud, it's fast, it’s heavy….And a mightily impressive gauntlet to throw down to any other thrash bands planning to release albums this year!
