Review Summary: You'll play it to...
Death of a Hero is the debut album from Cursed Legacy, a band that is hard to pin down in terms of sound and style.
Like a cross between some sort of symphonic folk rock and singer-songwriter progressive musical, Death of a Hero is one of the looser and minimalist records by Cursed Legacy but it stands out as one of the most pleasant and short listens from any modern prog band.
The album begins with "The Angel & The Curse", a somber guitar and vocals track that perfectly initiates the track that put the band on the radio in Australia and parts of the UK - Maybe One Day. The track leads into the albums' best song by far: Mistress.
Instrumentally the majority of the album lacks drums and percussion but is filled with the use of complex guitar work, keys, flutes and a string quartet.
Death of a Hero was recorded using analog equipment and so various vocal takes and guitar parts contain hiss or audio artifacts that were not removed in mastering which is sometimes criticised by fans but applauded by audiophiles as it gives the album a particularly rare atmosphere. It gives the 2008 album a 1968 sound which in my opinion benefits the output. Think of a Simon and Garfunkel record. The album would be fantastic as a vinyl record with its production quality as it shares an extreme lack of the noise and compression that most modern producers enforce today.
Overall, Cursed Legacy may be a band you'll come to adore or you'll fail to get into and the variety of sounds they've given since their debut shows the integrity the band possesses. Ultimately there's one guitarist and vocalist who writes and produces the band with several different lineups to give each album it's own chemistry. It's a short but fantastic album that doesn't fail to impress me each listen.
