Legions of War
Towards Death

April 2009
Released: 2009, Infernö Records
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Let´s declare war... In this case, a war in the Swedish Legions of War style. This 4-man army comes from Tanum, Sweden, and the band has just released their debut album on a French label, Infernö Records, that specializes in releasing albums of more underground metal bands. Legions of War is one of the 5 bands on their roster, playing sort of a mixture of melodic black and thrash metal.



What they do on their debut, TOWARDS DEATH, is nothing new or unusual at all on the war fields of metal these days, but it´s still pretty fun to listen to, and enjoy them nonetheless. I mean, if you are just a sucker of this type of blend of a rather mean but still melodic black and thrash metal, I cannot see any reason why one wouldn´t like Legions of War. Well, I like them pretty much myself (obviously way more than McDonald´s tasteless double cheese burgers with greasy and rancid French fries anyway) - and somehow they manage to bring the Swedish melodic death metal band, Unanimated´s IN THE FOREST OF THE DREAMING DEAD back to mind, with a slightly more thrashy approach - and even production-wise (nothing over-polished in this recording, which fits for them like the blade of a battle axe into the back of your skull).



Out of the 10 songs that they have recorded for TOWARDS DEATH, I really like a song called "Mission to Kill" on the album, which they have shot a video for also. It contains a beautiful acoustic interlude in the beginning of the song until it burst into a very smoothly running, vicious beast - having a nice, mind-sticking chorus, some really cutting riffs and even a decent solo in the very same package, too. And yes, the song sounds like it´s been done by a Swedish black/thrash metal band that has understood the power of melody as well, and hasn´t hesitated to use it in their own songs either.



Legions of War is just another, let´s say, already a relatively standard-sounding Swedish extreme metal band on the ever-growing line coming from that country that undoubtedly will meet some of your levels of satisfaction, at least in a somewhat decent way, I gotta believe. No frills, no thrills, but still a worthy slab of well-played Swedish black/thrash metal.