Tracks
1. Intro
2. Unholy Four
3. Avenger Of The Oppressed Souls
4. Buried Love
5. Pity The Sadness (Paradise Lost Cover)
6. Mass Murder
7. From Throat To Cunt
8. Wir Brauchen Keine Hirten
9. Blood Fantasy
10. I_Am Your God
11. Life Denied
12. Legio Mortis
13. Thorn In My Eye

Band:
Marco - vocals
Kalti - bass, vocals
Tommy - guitar
Matze - guitar
Steffi - keyboard
OD - drums

Diskography:
Servants of Satan (2001)
Legend of Humanity's Fall (2004)
Theatre of Morbid Visions (2009)

Info
Mixed and mastered by Alexander Krull

Guests:
Liv Kristine (vocals)

Released 15/4-2011
Reviewed 19/4-2011

Links:
mortis.n1-style.de/mortis/
myspace
label/dist
massacre

Atrum, malum quod validus is how this new album by Legion of Death can be described musically. For good measure you should maybe throw in a gothic into the mix as well just so you are covered for style when it comes to this band. This is by the way the second legion sent to me by Massacre that I have to deal with, last time it was Legio Damno so as you can see it seems to be legions with darker purposes that are being sent to me, I wonder why that is. Anyway, dark/death metal is how this album is described by Trucido who is the promotor of this album and I would say that they are quite correct in that assessment, there would be no problem describing them like that as there is a very dark atmosphere looming over this album. I think this is accomplished by the faint but very menacing keyboards and other arrangements that are there to add tension but do not take much room in the musical landscape. One thing that does take room is the duo that stands for the growling vocals, they are singing in different pitches but both in the dark growly way. One of this voices can be described as the legion mortis while the other one would be better described as a toad, or toadlike vocals I don’t know exactly but toad is what I think of when I hear that voice. There is also a guest appearance by well known norwegian vocalist Liv Kristine from Leaves Eve who adds a bit of a female touch on one of the tracks, track XI to be precise.

It all starts with an intro that feels all wrong and then ends more than an hour later, so you see it is not only the fact that the intro is wrong and sort of presents an album that never happens, it is also a very long album and standing for the death-toad duo for such a long time is not always the easiest thing but now I am getting a little bit ahead of myself because I was going to say something about some of the tracks and throw in some latin words just for fun. The first real track after the intro is Unholy Four which has some nice nods towards the extreme guitars with that classic fast moving, textbook style riff which shows you that this album is probably going to be very much different from what the intro was suggesting. It is a rather good track, has a nice melody going, the vocals work quite alright here with that kind of guitar style that is, also the atmospheric and distant keyboard style that adds this great atmosphere of darkness present themselves. Same goes for the following track Vindex Gravatus Animus as it is called, the keys in this song just adds so much depth so much atmosphere that you just wish that someone good was doing the vocal work since I feel this song could have been so much better had there been a different way of singing. Other tracks worth noticing is the cover of Paradise Lost called Pity the Sadness which is one of the better tracks even though I would hold the original in a much higher regard since it is just so much better. The real saviour for this album is track eleven with Liv Krisitine, it is just so strong and makes for a moment this album really worthwhile but in the end I still feel like they should have really done something about the vocals.

This album has a lot going for it with the amazing atmospheric work that creates this nice dark atmosphere of darkness and cold, the keyboards are brilliant, overall the musical side is really good, it is just let down by a vocal work that is frankly quisquiliarum and that is a huge letdown for this album. Why didn’t they actually think more of the vocal work instead of just throwing it on there, it just is not good as it is. And to add more to the negative account, the track called From the Throat to the Cunt, need I say more? I don’t think I do as no one would thing such a stupid song title is worth anything and the song is about as good and mature as the name of it. Another thing, the time, why is it so long? This make the album feel quite uneventful and unchanging, kind of boring or dull to be honest as the tracks are all quite similar in the end. I think the ingredients for making it good was there but for some reason they needed to add poop to the recipe and that is never a good thing. However, besides the vocals it is actually rather good, too bad about those vocals though.

Legio Mortis planto inconcinnus pervideo.

HHHHHHH

Label - MDD/Alive/Massacre Promotion
Three similar bands - Sothis/Wither/Dimmu Borgir
Betyg: HHHHHHH
Recensent: Daniel Källmalm