The Legacy

Beyond Hurt Beyond Hell

Written by: PP on 31/07/2008 08:30:55

The hardcore scenes of UK and rest of Europe haven\'t exactly been flourishing in recent memory. Turn to Europe, there are hardly any noteworthy pure hardcore acts to be name dropped here, and if there are, they certainly aren\'t making themselves known to me. The UK, however, is starting to show some signs of improvement, with both The Ghost Of A Thousand and Gallows destroying their way to widespread acclaim across the continent. Especially the latter\'s success hasn\'t gone unnoticed, and as such the country is starting to produce better and better hardcore bands by the hour; The Legacy and their debut full length \"Beyond Hurt Beyond Hell\" are an excellent example of that development.

Starting off the album with an all-instrumental melodic hardcore piece \"Alpha\", Legacy defines their sound more than as strictly hardcore, as the grating rhythm guitar riffs are met with a highly melodic, atmospheric lead guitar similar to what Comeback Kid had on \"Broadcasting...\". The track works as an atmospheric introduction to \"Ill Fated\", which kick starts the album to coarse yelling/screaming and breakneck speed hardcore punk. It is here where Legacy sounds most like Legacy and least like other bands, as you\'ll come to see throughout the rest of the album.

Take the next two tracks, \"Fire And Brimestone\" or the magnificent \"Sand And Time\", for instance. The pace is surprisingly slow for a hardcore band, and the melodies are referencing both Bane and Comeback Kid in a good way, expanding their tight hardcore sound into a more spacious soundscape. This in turn allows them to sound more ambitious, which is never a bad trait in the often tightly-wound hardcore scene.

Then the album speeds up again, with both \"Remnants\" and especially \"Exsomnis\" containing some very specific parallels to \"A Profound Hatred Of Man\"-era Shai Hulud, complete with misanthropic sounds and Adam Cox\'s soaring yells.

The name dropping doesn\'t stop there, as \"Curse Of The Ages\" sees vocalist Cox sound like an animal unleashed from a cage, inflicting vocal damage in the same manner as Frank Carter does on early Gallows demos. Those familiar with the band know he isn\'t a bad vocalist to be paralleled with. \"Ashes To Ashes\", another personal favorite of mine, merges the Comeback Kid layered guitar melody together with the angry vocal assault of Gallows, and well, who can complain? The song is as catchy as it is aggression-filled, helping me pigeonhole the band into the melodic hardcore genre.

Instrumentally, The Legacy belong right up there with Comeback Kid, Bane, and even Shai Hulud at times, professing an intensely tight, yet raucously spacious, strangely satisfying sound to them. And although Cox does do a good job fitting his coarse vocal style into the music overall, one\'s left wishing he would have just a little tiny bit more power and urgency in his voice when he delivers, but I don\'t see how the band can\'t correct it with some more focus on that department in production stage. Songwise, much of \"Beyond Hurt, Beyond Hell\" is excellent melodic hardcore (just check out \"Dusk\"), hanging just by the footsteps of the aforementioned genre heavyweights. If the band\'s able to keep this up for their sophomore while pushing the vocal department into something similarly explosive (and LOUD) as on the last few songs on the album, expect this band to explode with a masterpiece in their hands - there are so many moments on \"Beyond Hurt...\" where I\'m thinking \'they are so damn close\' and just wishing for that last piece of the puzzle to fall together so that we\'ll get another \"Wake The Dead\".

Download: Sand And Time, Exsomnis, Dusk, Ashes To Ashes
For the fans of: Comeback Kid, Bane, Shai Hulud, Gallows
Listen: Myspace

Release date 30.06.2008
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