The Legacy

by Simon T Diplock

This band could be your life

"‘Fire And Brimstone’ feels like a grand epic, ‘Remnants’ is a storm of stuttering riffs and roars, and on ‘Dusk’ Adam Cox sounds like he might die if he doesn’t get the song out of his lungs."

Hardcore bands have got to make a decision. As the genre’s popularity inevitably begins to fade, acts that aren’t absolutely established have to work out whether they’re willing to go with the flow- changing their sound to suit whatever trend takes over next- or whether they want to stick it out, staying determined to write better and better records while remembering the roots of the genre that changed their lives in the first place. Sheffield louts The Legacy, at least if ‘Beyond Hurt Beyond Hell’ is anything to go by, have most definitely chosen the latter option.

They’ve created something strong, something powerful- you can smell it before the disc even spins and then you can hear it even in the brief, wordless maelstrom of opener ‘Alpha’. They’ve created something that resolutely refuses to follow fashion- screaming in the same vein-busting way as the best hardcore has done for decades now. Yet they’ve created something that doesn’t bash away at the same scene blueprint either- citing Black Flag, Charles Bukowski and Godspeed You Black Emperor as influences. In the band’s own words they’ve created ‘a deep, bleak monster of aggression’.

They’ve got more than a way with words too; there are great songs here as well. ‘Fire And Brimstone’ feels like a grand epic, guitarist Dick Smith making turbulent noise, metallic violence, and emotional restraint sound solid and cohesive with ease, ‘Remnants’ is a storm of stuttering riffs and roars, and on ‘Dusk’ Adam Cox sounds like he might die if he doesn’t get the song out of his lungs.

It’s not all such immediately extreme stuff. ‘The Sun Wields Mercy’ is an ambient interlude that break up the intensity, ‘Ill Fated’ barrels along way too fast to batter emotions, better for battering anyone and anything in the pit instead, and if the wired beats and wicked melodies of ‘Curse of the Ages’ had been laid on tape a year or so earlier it’d be The Legacy and not Gallows that the music press were spaffing themselves silly over.

This isn’t just the best stuff that The Legacy have written (saying something considering how good last year’s ‘Solitude’ was), this is a record that instantly elevates the band into the same leagues as both their heroes and the best hardcore bands this little isle has ever produced. This however, is not a new thing. This has all been said before, said with conviction about superb bands like Beecher, November Coming Fire and Eden Maine, bands that have been roundly ignored and, despite all writing classic records, bands that were forced to split up. And so we finish with a plea. Dear British hardcore scene; don’t let The Legacy die. Because 'Beyond Hell...' and this band could be your life.
sylvain said on June 23rd 2008 [report abuse]

when is this coming to america?

Richy White, Dundee said on July 15th 2008 [report abuse]

Great article well written - I picked up the CD this morning in HMV (cover looked cool and it was under a tenner) it's not finished playing yet and I'm hooked. I'm not a hardcore afficianado, usually listen to more mainstream stuff (Mastodon, High on Fire, Opeth, AIC) but this has tons more energy. Hopefully they'll be up here in Jockland soon so I can check them live. Reminds me of those instrumental only albums by Karma to Burn ... where are they now?

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