Review Summary: A catchy, groovy, and phenomenal release, paying tribute to every fan, both old and new
Taken in a vacuum, each album from He Is Legend is arguably their best, but also arguably their worst. Because each is so wildly different than its predecessor, there’s no consensus winner among fans and critics, with each album having its own unique sound, strengths, and weaknesses. If you speak with fans of the “old” band, they will almost unanimously agree that 2004’s post-hardcore romp,
I Am Hollywood is the band at its best. There’s 2006’s
Suck Out The Poison- in all of it’s southern-rock glory- that first garnered He Is Legend some national and critical attention, but alienated a lot of the people who supported them from the start. In 2009,
It Hates You traded screams and technical guitar riffs for sludge and hard-driving bass lines, taking pages out of the books of stoner rock, blues, and punk to once again reinvent their sound. After five years without a new album, 2014’s
Heavy Fruit rewrote the script entirely, proving to be the most divisive release yet. With a return to the blooming guitar parts of before, infused with blues, jazz, and a heavy dose of groove,
Heavy Fruit became by far the most experimental album in the catalog, dividing fans between those who appreciated the new, more mature direction and those who yearned for the band to return to its hardcore roots from a decade prior. With new release
few, He Is Legend create an album that both reflects their entire catalog and contains moments for fans of every release while still managing to push the band further along their trajectory.
Let me be clear here. Every album from He Is Legend is great, and all for totally different reasons. The ability for the band to alter their style from record to record is impressive and each time they write new music, they nail it. However, this blending of styles from record-to-record has proven risky, as each new release has simultaneously earned them new fans, while displeasing many of their old. One might argue that every band runs this risk, but most bands tend to have a common thread across their catalog, with new music maturing and expanding upon that thread. For He Is Legend, the albums have been so vastly different from one another, that it makes it tough to identify what the “true” band is, so to speak. If you were unfamiliar with the band and then exposed to any individual album first, you would likely have a vastly different opinion on the rest of their catalog. There are very few ideas of what to expect from release to release, other than it’s going to be significantly varied from the one before, and that the band will liberally wear its new influences (whatever they might be) on their sleeves. Because of these continuous stylistic changes, the modern He Is Legend fan is likely very different than one from over a decade ago, with support for the band ebbing and flowing with each new release.
It may seem like overkill, but all this backstory is essential to understanding how and why He Is Legend have delivered
few, whose namesake is an homage to the few fans who have stuck with them from day one, and sonically is an amalgamation of every album He Is Legend produced before. After being dropped by label Tragic Hero after the release of
Heavy Fruit garnered critical praise, but little commercial success, the future of the band looked dire. Without backing from a record company, the band turned to crowdfunding to help raise the requisite cash needed to self-produce a new record. They quickly surpassed their goal on Indiegogo for the new album, and began writing. In a fortunate stroke of luck for the band, the Indiegogo campaign garnered interest from Spinefarm Records, who agreed to produce and distribute the new record. There’s no telling how the self-produced version of
few would have sounded, but the version backed by the label sounds brilliant. Every individual component meshes perfectly, weaving in and out of one another, and the entire record is produced almost flawlessly.
It should be no surprise that the most memorable part of
few is the presence of lead singer Schulyar Croom’s mesmerizing voice. It’s one that is jagged and worn, like an unkempt gravel road, and seems like at any given moment it could completely give out on him, but this distinctiveness has always added an additional layer of depth to his exceptional songwriting. Croom has one of the most unique voices in modern music and what he lacks in range, he makes up for in passion, power and control, tapping into influences like the occult, old horror movies, and the feeling of the sticky summer heat of his home state of North Carolina to create intricate and engaging stories in his songs. It may be a bit formulaic in places, but
few produces some of the most catchy and memorable moments of his career. The hooks on songs like “Air Raid”, “Sand”, and “Silent Gold” will be stuck in your head immediately and almost every song features Croom with at least one moment that will leave you impressed by his ability.
“Catchy” does noes stop at the vocals however. Guitarists Adam Tanbouz and Denis Desloge do an excellent job of producing notable riffs on a good majority of the songs. What is most impressive is their ability to change styles so seamlessly, sometimes in the same song. It shows a true mastery of an instrument when a musician can transition from genre to genre without missing a beat, and the duo cover the gamut of guitar styles over the course of the album. From blues, to jazz, to hard rock, to sludge, Tanbouz and Desloge cover pretty much every sound He Is Legend have emulated over their careers, and then some. In a continuation from his much-praised contributions to
Heavy Fruit, bass player Matty Williams once again proves that bassists are actual musicians too and adds to the grooviness of the entire record with solid groundwork for the rest of the band. Sam Huff, who left the band shortly after recording, does an admirable job on drums, but often gets lost in the shuffle, not because his work isn’t of quality, but more so because the rest of the band excels so well at their individual parts. From top to bottom, every member does an exceptional job, and each gets their own moment to shine.
As a whole,
few is equal parts heavy, brooding, and groovy, and contains songs that could easily slot into any of their other records and not feel out of place. Album opener “Air Raid” is a punishing throwback to the band’s heavier beginnings, while “Beaufort” pays tribute to the southern rock stylings “He Is Legend” have dabbled with before. Album closer “The Gardner” is He Is Legend at its sludgy best. For fans of
Heavy Fruit, the bluesy “Alley Cat” and groove-thick “Gold Dust” continue the more “experimental” sound found on the album and likely indicate the direction the band is heading. Admittedly, the album does drag a little after a stellar first half, but it’s more of a change of style than it is a lack of quality writing, as heavy, hard-driving thumpers fade away to more mellow, slower-paced story-telling. It’s almost as if
few is a greatest hits album of songs they never released and should have something to appeal to the different individual He Is Legend fans, even if the entirety doesn’t appeal to everyone. This approach yields for a couple of jarring moments, as the album takes some twists and turns that you aren’t quite expecting, but for the most part, is structured solidly and should attract fans both old and new.
Favorite songs: “Air Raid”, “Sand”, “Beaufort”, “Gold Dust”
