Legion Of The Damned — Slaves Of The Shadow Realm (Review)

It’s difficult to know where to start 2019 with, as I recommit to doing these reviews. Do I go with a big name? Something more accessible, to draw people in?

Fuck that, here’s a Death Metal album.

Now Death Metal isn’t exactly my forte when it comes to metal music, I’ve never really dove deep into the classic bands of the genre as much as it’s sister sub-genres. Luckily for me though this isn’t just a straight Death Metal album, as they incorporate elements of Black Metal, Melodic Death and even a sparse bit of NWOBHM influence.

This kind of music really lives and dies on it’s riffs, and this album certainly delivers on that front. Offering up a fairly diverse range of styles across it’s 47 minute (Including the two bonus tracks) run-time. As you’d expect much of the time it’s just pummelling and fast, but they slow it down by a little every now and then to offer just a little breathing room.

A few moments on this album really remind me of Amon Amarth (which is never a bad thing), especially on the song Slaves Of The Southern Cross, as well as the general production job. The lead work all over this album helps make the songs a good bit catchier than they otherwise would, with short repeated motifs over the primary riffs that help keep things interesting.

Thematically, I think it’s about some kind of undead army, but frankly I couldn’t really care less. It succeeds in adding a bit of character to the music, but with the often indistinguishable vocal style of the genre, it doesn’t really do much to really sell any theme. But then again, who really cares about the vocals on a Death Metal album, it’s not really the point.

Altogether this is a really solid album to kick off 2019 with, great riffs and a sense of momentum that never lets up. I just wish the short Outro didn’t sound like music from a Call Of Duty pre-game lobby.

3.5/5 — Very Good

Written By Séamas Ó Sandair