Review Summary: 91025 is an album that features different genres that make up a solid EP that fans of hardcore, rock, and alternative will be sure to enjoy.
He Is Legend's first recognizable record was 91025, an EP (and a little lengthy for an EP, only a handful minutes short of a full length). It's hard to distinguish what genre this album is aiming for, but it can be described as a rock album with some hardcore and a little alternative intertwined.
91025 is an album that accomplishes what most bands cannot do anymore, which is lack of repetition. Throughout this record, and even the individual songs, repetition won't be a problem to bring 91025 down.
But there are definitely some things that could have helped this album achieve a more statisying sound. For one, most of the music (pardon the bass and vocals) is pretty simple. You can tell that the band did not attempt to push their limits whatsoever (once again, pardon the bassist), and if they did, they simply aren't very talented musicians. The drums are nothing to get excited about, just some regular beats with some semi-interesting fills thrown in, and the vocals need to be turned down a bit so they don't drown out the instruments. Another thing that brings this album down is that He Is Legend trys to cram a billion different genres into one song, while only capable of playing some of those genres well. It would make this album sound much better if they cut the crap that they just can't make sound good, like some of the metal riffs that almost sound like they are trying to imitate Iron Maiden. After a few spins of the CD, it starts to become a little more stale, partly because this is only an EP and there aren't many songs provided, and partly because the recording quality of this album could be better.
What He Is Legend lacks in complexity, they make up for with the catchiness of the songs on 91025, with an exception to Hip Hop: Anonymus, which is a pointless song that should have been removed. Some of the key tracks on here are "The Fool", which features some catchy phrases and solid instruments, "Scram Toots" which has a chorus that will likely get stuck your head for weeks, and "Martini" which sounds almost dreamy with some of the most stellar basslines you'll ever hear.
The lyrics of this album can easily hit or miss, depending on what you prefer. There are plenty of meaty metaphors and similes, and the lyrical songwriting is well done. But not everybody enjoys songs about personal issues, which I believe every song but one is about, most of them dealing with bad relationships as so many songs do.
Not only can He Is Legend boast that 91025 has a lack of repetition and a superb quality of catchiness, but this album also features some very nice bass work, and some decent guitar work here and there (like in Scram Toots and Down in a Crypt), some very solid vocals (with various styles from the almost mewithoutyou style of singing in The Fool to the poppish style in Scram Toots), all accompanied with the expirimental originality formed from the mash up of genres (Keep in mind this album was realeased 04, so it was even more original than now upon it's release). But if you are a fan of hardcore, alternative, and plain ol' rock, I recommend you give this album a listen.
