Review Summary: Throw away your preconceived notions of who He Is Legend are, because this album is very different than SOTP
He Is Legend have made a career of making albums that are very different from each other. I Am Hollywood was a jazzy, brilliant post hardcore album that stuck out in the midst of many boring and unoriginal bands. Suck Out the Poison proved to be a completely different album, containing raspy vocals and a much more “southern” feel than the previous release, which dismayed many fans. This new album continues the tradition of He Is Legend reinventing themselves. It seems they anticipated how upset some people would be with this album, by aptly titling it, “It Hates You.” The album fuses together the styles of “I Am Hollywood” and “Suck Out the Poison,” creating something different entirely. Vocalist Schuylar Croom has almost completely let go of the scream, except for the last thirty seconds in the chaotic end of “Everyone I Know Has Fangs.” His singing now lies somewhere between “I Am Hollywood” and “Suck Out the Poison,” still having that raspy edge but retaining some of the cleaner vocal style of their debut album. Not to mention they lost one of their guitarists, relying solely on Adam Tanbouz now to handle to guitar. With such changes and an albeit awful (but amusing) album cover, one might be inclined to think this album doesn’t live up to previous He Is Legend releases, but this album defiantly delivers.
With the opening track, “Dicephalous,” we are greeted with a dreamy, atmospheric intro before the song erupts into a classic He Is Legend mayhem, complete with heavy Pantera-ish riffing and a short jazzy solo. This sets the tone for the rest album as clean/heavy dynamics are more apparent than in “Suck Out the Poison.” Perhaps the best He Is Legend Track written to date, “Stranger Danger,” utilizes this perfectly, containing a mysterious sounding verse and prechorus that recalls “A Crow Left of the Murder” era Incubus with brilliant interplay between the Matt Williams on bass and Tanbouz before blasting into a heavy chorus and then a soft bridge of acoustic guitars and a cello that brings to mind Pink Floyd, but not before being bombasted by some more heavy riffing at the end, with a nice harmonized guitar lead. The song “Party Time!” contains a great solo, “Decisions, Decisions, Decisions” builds up to a great climax just as “Stranger Danger” does, sending you on a musical journey. Female vocals are in many tracks, adding to the album’s distinct taste, and the drummer Steve Bache provides impressive drum fills, keeping up well with the rest of the band.
This is not to say the album is without its hiccups though, as songs “Cult of She” and “Future’s Bright, Man,” are not particularly bad, they just aren’t really that amazing when compared to other tracks off the albums. They feel like filler tracks, and while “Cult of She” has some great moments, parts of the song have, as a previous reviewer stated, “Irritating melodies.” But this is minor as the other ten tracks are stellar and many much better than any of their past songs.
The most important thing to remember is that this is the album He Is Legend wanted to make, not caring about money and what the fans think. In the end it sounds like they had more fun with this album then they did with any of their other albums and as a result of that I think this would be He Is Legend’s best album if not for the couple of filler tracks.
