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The Legion > Unseen to Creation > Reviews
The Legion - Unseen to Creation

An album to check out in black metal - 87%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, February 23rd, 2009

Since the day I saw a review for this album on an Italian magazine, I’ve always been truly curious about this band. The Legion is a band that became quite popular in the genre because Emil Dragutinovic plays the drums here and he became quite popular for having played with Marduk too on the most recent efforts. However, apart from this, I read lots of good things about the violence of this band and the way the members were able to mix the brutality of death and black together. The product we are talking about is called Unseen to Creation and it’s from 2003.

The introduction should always transmit a sort of dark aura and so it is. “Retribution” makes its appearance through immediate blast beats and screams. The stop and go are multiple and the riffage takes from death and black in equal doses. The palm muting sections are alternated to the tremolo ones and the general atmosphere is just frozen. Clear, evident influences can come from Dark Funeral, especially for the fast black metal sections but the riffs have also a hint of thrash and that is perfect. The production is a thing that I liked a lot here: it’s not too pummelling or overproduced. The rawness of the classic black metal really has its personal place, without plastic and too loud sounds. Everything must conserve a quite original (bound to the roots) sound.

The black metal shrieks are even mixed with few growls to be always on balance between the two genres. The following “Those Beyond” is an example and the riffs are often with a hint of progressive inside, without deforming the original attitude towards extremism. The dark restarts are full of blast beats and Emil does a great work also when it comes to the rabid, sudden tempo changes. He’s versatile, fluid and powerful at the same time. “Redeemer” seems to come out directly from an album like The Secrets of the Black Arts with its icy riffs and the long blast beats sections. “Cosmopathic Deathvoid” is more varied and shows several dark passages, from the bass to the guitars without forgetting the sudden blast beats explosions.

Few parts are remarkable for that hint of dark melody and this binds the band’s style to another one, the one that made school in this genre: the one by Dissection (“On Swift Wings” with its arpeggios and the frozen-epic style). “Knee-Deep in Blood” is far more violent and displays evident Dark Funeral influences again. “Ascendancy” is a slow march in the dark and the style takes a lot of its melody from the lead lines that contribute in adding the right sense of darkness. “Awakened Fury” features a darker intro to display a progression in speed and violence. As we go on, the structure becomes heavier and faster, reaching the limit with lots of blast beats sections.

“Invoking The End” is another short, instrumental track with weird sounds and the rolls of the drums to announce the last “Rise of the Fallen”. The Dark Funeral influences return to support a far faster and heavier track. The tremolos and the open chords riffs are perfect to support a glacial and dark aura, ending in a violent way a competitive product in black metal. All things considered, this is not a masterpiece, absolutely, but has a good songwriting. The musicians are all experts and this helps but how many times we found disastrous efforts by competent musicians? So, let’s enjoy this dark gem!

Underrated... - 96%

blodbotina, April 18th, 2007

Well this is, together with Vile (US), my favorite band on Listenable Records. These guys are doing mostly fast black metal, and they're damn good at it!
With a style similar to Dark Funeral, a well known Swedish black metal band, and some melodies which remind to early Dissection a lot, they managed to impress me even though I'm not a big black metal fan or something...
There is something I really don't understand... why do people compare this to other fast black metal bands and recommend Marduk instead. This is completely different, people! Marduk's style is something like simple riff based headbanging BM (at least in their "Panzer Division Marduk" and "Plague Angel" phase), their classical albums like "Nightwing" and "Those of the Unlight" are another case...

The Legion's "Unseen to Creation" simply owns all of Marduk's, or any other fast black metal band's albums. This is something I was looking for in BM, lyrics that aren't just anti-christian or pure satanic-based, but something more... epic. It's just a style I like better. Take this part for example... "Dreams of anguished souls in fire
Lifted from below by broken wings
On their torn and damaged bodies
The truth, told by bleeding scars "
There are tons of more stuff like that, it shows of grimness in it's purest form! Not something like "we killed Jesus and then ass-raped him with an upside-down cross".

The drumming is mainly based on smooth, polished blast beats which vary in speed. The double-bass-pedal is done perfectly! Not too clicky-sounding like in some albums like "Dechristianize" by Vital Remains, and not too harsh sounding like in Disavowed's "Perceptive Deception" (which is good in that style, but would suck in this one...) I can just say that I love this drummer, he simply did the job flawlessly!

The guitar part is simple to Dark Funeral's in "Vobiscum Satanas" but much cleaner in sound and, to be honest, better in general. Mainly consisting of high notes and some heavy rhythm guitar work. There are some clean guitar parts in 7th and 11th songs, don't remember about the others, and they fit in perfectly, those parts together with an intro and some ambient/instrumental songs made this album very interesting to listen to. Nothing much to say about this, I'll leave it to you if you decide to listen to it, I was very, very satisfied with it.

Hmm... the vocals are some shrieks and violent screams (which I especially liked) with some very low growls, and also some double-track vocals similar to Glen Benton's, but more black metal sounding, like they're supposed to be. To be honest, it surprised me how far did he go with the screams, they were extremely high in some parts.

There is also an "anonymous" keyboard part which fits in perfectly, just like the clean guitar work. In the song "On Swift Wings" I was kinda glad to hear how much atmosphere can a pure black metal band create.

Anyway, to end this horribly written review (my English sucks, sorry :/ ), I would like to say that this is a way to go for all fast black metal fans who got bored listening to Marduk's records over and over again and want a slight chance in the atmosphere and mood of the music, that's the main reason I wrote this for. :)

Yet another good band signed to Listenable. - 79%

Monstro_City, November 6th, 2004

There is a serious case of Black Metal going around these days, the genre has simply grown too large for it's fans to support it. Which in my case is good, due to the fact that most Black Metal is tired, overplayed and bad (for lack of a better term). I have many bands to write about, The Legion, however is quite different in comparison (to most Black Metal).

While they are highly influenced by the occult, there is quitea large similarity (regarding lyrics) to that of Brutal Death. At any rate, they do possess the basic requirements of Black Metal, a solid (and repeated) guitar riff that is accompanied by Heavy Duty percussion (or Double Kick). Yet, at many times, The Legion will break away from that exhausted style to perform riffs that are very catchy (at times even Thrashy). And more, they don't just repeat all their riffs constantly throughout any song, they "Invert" them frequently - enabling their listener to remain interested. Unfortunately, the bass that is present within the album is not as abundant, therfore depth is an element that could have been more developed. The good news, however, is that despite the lack of said element, it isn't as repulsive to ruin the album. It has the predictable production quality as most bands on Listenable Records!

Musicianship, as inexorable in Black Metal as it is, remains reproduced, yet still quite entertaining. One particular highlight in "Unseen To Creation" is a little intermission entitled "Invoking The End", which sounds (due to the abscence of their vocalist, and the chords and scales they were using) something Ancient Egyptian influenced very similar to that of "Nile". Keeping in mind that that is only a little ballad within the album, there are more enjoyable tracks, such as "On Swift Wings". This song is very erie as it is Black Metal at it's best (and predicable to some degree), half way through the track there is a cadence that is contributed by a Synthesizer who's musician is unknown. I just assume that it was written by The Legion, however, recorded and performed by their producer and mixer Tommy Tagtgren. This cadence is tranquil, supernatural and religious in nature that just screams repentance. At least until the band returns to the song and continues playing as if to denounce themselves salvation and condemn themselves to eternal KVLT-ness! You don't get too much "trooer" than that!

bands such as this one don't come around too often, there not being too many good Black Metal bands out there (that aren't either really famous or really underground). The Legion is directly inside that transition! This album and band alike is an excellent credit to it's genre due to the genre's detiriorating reputation. Troo!