Blasfeme
Black Legion


4.4
superb

Review

by Gary STAFF
July 22nd, 2024 | 47 replies


Release Date: 07/12/2024 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Grab yer mace, sharpen thy blade!

As soon as I saw this album cover, I knew I had to listen to this record. (For me, it's one of the best album covers of the year.) Let me clarify a bit: the soldier in black armor on the cover and the album title are clear references to the infamous army in Hungarian history, Matthias Corvinus's Black Legion. So, for someone like me who loves both medieval themes and black metal, this album seemed very promising. Fortunately, my gut feeling proved to be correct, as this album by the Bristol-based Blasfeme turned out to be very strong!

After I visited their earlier releases, I believe this album's title was chosen with a serious purpose: a declaration that the band aims to follow a new direction. What does this mean? Instead of the usual (pathetic?) devil-worship, they drew inspiration from the dark stories of the Middle Ages instead, and in terms of sound, they spiced up the typical black metal tremolos with heavy metal and punk elements. This way, Black Legion feels significantly more melodic and musically richer than the average. The album features a rawer sound typical of old-school black metal, but this is complemented by excellent studio work that preserves the sharpness of the riffs while ensuring that every instrument and vocals sound perfect and ‘huge’ (thanks to that hall reverb effect, for example). Another strength of the album is that it includes a few rarer ideas, such as incorporating a sample from an old movie at the beginning of the track "Ritualistic Exsanguination" (I have no idea where is that sample from); or the melancholic closing track itself, "Bound by the Blood Upon Our Swords", which is an instrumental piece performed on exclusively acoustic guitars (it also reminded me of Ulver's Kveldssanger due to the same choice for the instrument, plus I felt the same melancholic atmosphere).

Black Legion is an excellent "everyday" black metal album, which, despite its short runtime (just half an hour), is musically exciting and highly enjoyable — at least for me, it hit the mark in practically every way!




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user ratings (32)
3.6
great


Comments:Add a Comment 
garas
Staff Reviewer
July 22nd 2024


8200 Comments

Album Rating: 4.4 | Sound Off

This has grown on me a lot.

NightOnDrunkMountain
Contributing Reviewer
July 22nd 2024


888 Comments


High rating! I guess I have to check this

garas
Staff Reviewer
July 22nd 2024


8200 Comments

Album Rating: 4.4 | Sound Off

This will be probably a 3.5 for everyone else, but this is a sneaky one, it's already one of the most listened albums of 2024 for me.

BallsToTheWall
July 22nd 2024


51607 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Great review, album slaps.

MillionDead
July 23rd 2024


5604 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

This is really fun so far.

Zac124
July 23rd 2024


3161 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Album riffs hard. The closer is beautiful too.

Gameofmetal
Emeritus
July 23rd 2024


11761 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

ah hell this is hitting every mark I'm looking for so far.

MillionDead
July 23rd 2024


5604 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Yeah, it’s not reinventing the wheel or breaking the mold, but it pulls off what it’s doing with pizazz and competence.

Dimorphic
July 23rd 2024


1390 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Vocalist in this band is my postman, lol. Great guy, great album!



Inb4 the inevitable classic that he's delivered a great album.

BallsToTheWall
July 23rd 2024


51607 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

^ that’s badass.

DDDeftoneDDD
July 23rd 2024


22864 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

4.4!

Eakflanderyof
July 23rd 2024


5931 Comments


@dimorphic

Hell yeah, there is no more metal job in Europe than postman. It seems like every time I learn about a semi famous metal musician in Europe their second job is postman lol

Eakflanderyof
July 23rd 2024


5931 Comments


Also, I love that this is no frills as it gets but it doesn't completely reel me in. I love the raw drums though. Super rare even in bm nowadays. I think it's because most engineers are reluctant to put in the work lol

DarkSideOfLucca
July 23rd 2024


18531 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I'm so pumped to listen to this, holy shit

Confessed2005
July 24th 2024


6098 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

This is sensational. One of the best albums of the year so far.

zaruyache
July 24th 2024


27827 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

Looking into this.

Essence
July 24th 2024


6739 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

rules - kinda what I wanted the new inconcessus lux lucis to be

garas
Staff Reviewer
July 25th 2024


8200 Comments

Album Rating: 4.4 | Sound Off

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves this album!

DarkSideOfLucca
July 25th 2024


18531 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Yeah man this has been on repeat all day, this is solid as fucckkkk



prob a 4 for me because its not breaking new ground or anything, but damn does it slap

Hawks
July 25th 2024


94727 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Gotta hear this.



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