New
Jersey's Grim Legion exhumed their debut LP "Unholy
Resurrection" this month on Philly's own Horror Pain Gore Death
Productions label. I say exhumed, as Grim Legion formed in
1988, were active until '91, and finally reformed in 2011 to release
to further demos with fellow New Jersian and current labelmate Mike
Keller of Sacrificial Blood on drums (Mike has since moved on to focus entirely on Sacrificial Blood, check out their 2nd LP "Souls For Sale" for some outstanding speed metal with deathy, progressive, and classic heavy metal leanings). Grim Legion also bears the
distinction of having John Paradiso of doomy death metallers, Evoken,
on guitars and backing vocals as a founding member.
For
fans who're familiar, you'll find an excellent and soon-to-be classic
release. Otherwise, this is a great place to start your metal journey
and support some local talent, as this is more a genre-defining
rather than genre-changing release. The guitars are bloated, loose
and down-tuned with plenty of chunk and tremolo alternerations
splattered with squeals. The drums are loud, driving, and even commanding;
they are loud in the mix. For vocals we have classic deep growls
and mid-pitch screams occasionally peppering the mix with some
insanity. My only complaints are that the snare is often too loud in
the mix and the guitar a bit too muddy at times, but these are minor. The lyrics have more of a anti-religious tilts but there's plenty of classic death metal tropes as well.
The
packaging features a horde of advancing skeleton warriors atop steeds,
which has some great colors and the simple but effective Grim Legion
logo. The concept works well but the execution is lacking as it looks
a rather cartoonish and very digital. We do get 9 tracks, including
an eerie and demented sounding intro, with stand-out cuts, for me, in
the doomy riffs of "Dark Ritual" and the stuttering,
swinging beat of the eponymous closer "Unholy Resurrection."
Full
album stream and interview at:
http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/streaming-grim-legions-unholy-resurrection/
I am proud to boast that I also have the "Unholy Resurrection" demo, purchased when I saw Grim Legion at 2012's "You Can't Kill The Dead" Festival in Brooklyn, alongside Bone Ritual, Mausoleum, and Engorged, amongst others. Hopefully the older ones will be reissued. Yes, the show was highly memorable (except for the bummer that Abazagorath cancelled) and I recommend trying to catch any of the aforementioned acts, especially Grim Legion (this IS a post about them, after all!).
And now, an amusing anecdote: whilst strolling about at 2013's Maryland Deathfest, I stumbled into John Paradiso setting up Evoken merch. We started talking and I quickly brought up Grim Legion as I had the aforementioned demo and was fiending for more (note: all of the prior material is exceedingly hard to find). He was elated that someone knew Grim Legion and appreciated it, promising me an album "next year." So, here we are, after almost 12 months of waiting, and I am NOT disappointed. I am just glad I didn't have to wait as long as old-school fans! Thanks John and Grim Legion past and present for bringing some killer material, I will look forward to some more shows this year! I will also hope that it doesn't take so long to release the next full-length, but for material this good, it's worth it.
*Review copyright The Samnambulist, 2014*
