Originally a small band only known to the natives of Wilmington, North Carolina, He is Legend was quite possibly one of the city's best hidden secrets. Playing a sexed-up version of modern metalcore, He is Legend displayed their great skills at creating catchy yet heavy music throughout their local music scene and eventually shared it with the world on their debut
I Am Hollywood, which featured heavy breakdowns, harsh screams, but also featured melodic singing and influences from punk and even sleazy hard rock. Then they released
Suck out the Poison which combined their earlier sound with that of southern rock. But before the fame, before the fortune He is Legend released
91205 an experimental (and somewhat progressive) metalcore album that is often overlooked and under appreciated.
Hip Hop: Annonymous, the first track is a great introduction for the band and what their about. Starting with a catchy guitar-line and drum beat, the song goes from riffy pop-rock to breakdown infest metalcore. The song is simple, but its very effective and is good insight to the bands influences. The listener also gets to hear the wide variety of vocalist Schuylar Croom's voice, which can go from clean singing, to a high pitched shriek, to even a low death metal influenced guttural.
Scram Toots is the first "real song" album and kicks with a drum roll and harmonized hardcore punk riff. He chorus incorporates the metalcore style dissonant chords while the vocals alternate from cleans to gutterals. A breakdown follows, but brings in some very Iron Maiden styled guitar intricacies and the usual single note chords. Then it switches to progressive type riff and some stellar drumwork courtesy of Steven Bache who creates interesting fills and patterns for the tempo changing music.
Suave starts with Mr.Croom's voice heavily effected with straight up dissonant chords in the background. The chorus jumps to more pop rock oriented territory. The best part of this song though are the lovely Maiden-esque harmonies which sound straight from the band themselves.
The Fool showcases the bands knack for weird melodies that creep you out but intrigue you at the same time. Schuylar doesn't have the best voice by any means, but he knows how to create unusual, interesting melodies that will keep you interested.
Martini once again brings some of the bands more progressive tendencies into play, creating an almost matchore type verse. While the verse is great, the chorus on this track is kind of lack, with Schuylar's voice going almost out of key at times. The guitars are also very lackluster on this track leaving the listener expecting more, but never getting it.
Either They Decorated Christmas for Early Or They're All Dead fills the void the other song left however, by bringing in many different influences at once. This song carries a little bit of something for everyone. Maiden style harmonizations, soaring clean vocals, and crazy chaotic screaming vocals. This song is also one of the only songs where the listener can hear the bass player, who is actually quite talented. The breakdown of this song is one of the best album, and sounds very Lamb of God influenced.
Down in a Crypt despite the morbid name starts in a happy fashion with a fun little lead over some basic powerchords. The breakdown is really good, with a layering of gutterals and cleans and adding some unique guitar twists and turns. The guitars on this album are very well done, constantly changing style, but never feeling out of place. They do a good job at building original riffs and random yet well timed harmonies. Last song
You Sound Like A White Boy starts heavy with screaming and crazy fast tempo drums and guitar. This song has a sense of urgency to it, and makes the listener just want to hit things or get in a mosh pit. Most interesting thing is that it contains a very sludgy southern rock riff that would fit perfectly in with their later style.
In the beginning He is Legend was undefinable. Their influences were many and they wore them all on their sleeves. Later release would see them dabble more openly with southern rock, but at the time of this EP, He is Legend was dedicated to making a complete metalcore masterpiece, and for the most part, they succeeded.
