Review Summary: American melodic death metal with black metal and gothic influences, this is a fresh kick to the jaw to the scene here.
Although Abigail Williams broke up recently their demo left a message to me that not all hope was lost in the American metal scene. That amidst this scene obsessed metal core their still lays a band showing off their black and death metal influences proudly. Along with The Funeral Pyre, Abigail Williams play melodic death metal with black metal influences. The keyboards are more involved in the latter and provides atmosphere throughout.
At around the 22 minute mark ,and 6 songs on the disk, this demo encompasses hellishly brutal rhythms . Everybody does their part to make everything brutal as hell and even adding some clean vocals to the mix. Guitarwise Bjorn Dannov, Ken Sorceron, and Brad Riffs do their job well. Fast and heavy paced riffs dominate throughout and keep the rhythm straightforward as the keyboards outshine with their dark melodies. Although not very diverse they do what their supposed to do and lay down some interesting solos from keeping this from becoming uninspired. Basically they hold down the groove the groove for Ashley Jurgemeyer to lay down keyboard runs. She plays very Dimmu Borgirish inspired runs that have a very gothic feel and an ominous tone adding to the heavy riffing. Ken Sorceron sounds possessed with his high pitch screams making any black metal band proud along with death metal inspired grunts. Occasionally cleans vocals make their presence, such as in Conqueror Wyrm, From A Buried Heart, and Watch Tower. The singing treads nowhere near the metal core side but instead adds an epic quality to the music. They blend perfectly with the music and are not over abused to an extent. Well how’s the drumming? Zach Gibson plays his kit well and typical of the genre itself plays with speed. Fast double bass and blast beats dominate more or less. Typical but good at what he does. Kyle Dickinson plays the bass here and really isn't important here.
Legend is a very brutal and dark CD that follows a very straightforward pattern. Many people will be instantly turned off by the high pitched vocals and throw this away. Just give it a few runs and then judge. Listening to this you will instantly hear many influences from the extreme metal world into their music. Most notably would be "Storm of the Lights Bane: but with keyboards providing a large portion of the melodies.
All in all this is a great start for a band who had the promise of becoming big in the underground. Depending on where you go to find this, this will cost around 5 to 7 bucks. So anyone into blackened death metal or heavy music, should spend the small fee and give this a try. You might like it or hate but that's all up to you to decide.
