Review Summary: A timeless tone, an elegy of melancholy
Black Metal albums are a dime a dozen and it’s very rare that a release sticks out in the vast sea of copycats and regurgitated ideas, mostly shoved through a lo-fi filter. Thankfully Sad Legend’s sophomore LP ‘The Revenge of The Soul’ is one of those rare releases.
This album mashes together a few styles to great success, melding melodic / heavy metal riffs with symphonic black metal elements and folk. The drumming is tight and serviceable while sometimes noticeably fantastic. A majority of the vocals are clean and quite melodic, with some interesting styles thrown into the mix. These clean vocals sound excellent when layered with the frequent acoustic guitars, while the harsh vocals for the most part are standard black metal fare. There are occasional moments where the vocalist pushes that into some truly ravenous territory, at times he’ll do this death rattle sounding vocal; most effectively on the highlight of the album, ‘Elegy of Slaughter Echoing In The East’. A ten minute epic which goes through acoustic passages and piano-driven transitions. The aforementioned death rattle continues as the instruments fade, and a wretched scream bursts through until finally the drums and keys kick in. This is an awesome transition as It’s an extremely chilling moment, and one of the best of the genre.
Another standout track is the intro, ‘AXE’ which features a really fun collection of riffs and some of the catchier vocal melodies on the album. There’s a moment about halfway through the track where the vocalist introduces melodic harsh vocals which sound similar to the signature “goblin vocals” Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation does, perhaps this album was an inspiration? Who knows.
The use of pianos on a handful of tracks help to set this release apart from similar albums, and it’s only solidified by the sometimes optimistic sounding keyboard additions, as displayed on the closing track ‘Night of The Hunt’ which helps to keep each listen engaging. Of course there are more standard Black Metal offerings sprinkled into the mix, like ‘Maruta’ which is a bit more fast paced and straight-forward.
The Revenge of The Soul is an interesting, occasionally somber, and creatively rich offering by a sadly short-lived band, and it’s an absolute must-hear for any fan of black metal or any other metal sub genre.
Best tracks:
- Elegy of Slaughter Echoing In The East
- AXE
- Night of The Hunt
- Imjin War
