steemit W A R - Weekly Album Review | [He Is Legend - "Few"]

With the release of their “Few”, the often unseen, North Carolina bred rock band He Is Legend reaches rarefied air not achieved by many other long lasting acts.  By staying true the massive sound that put them on the map and gave them their identity while constantly adapting and evolving, He Is Legend has maintained an almost cult-like and fanatical following that has lasted and grown for more than a decade.  

The devotion of their fanbase was proven in December of 2015, when the Indiegogo campaign to fund this album was closed at $71,894[1], nearly $16,000 over their target goal.  The result of the campaign is He Is Legend’s fifth full length studio album which clocks in in at 43 minutes and 48 seconds and can easily be called one of their best works to date.

Kicking things off with a bang, “Air Raid” eases the listener into our journey with a false sense of serenity before letting loose one of the most powerful riffs in the whole song 0:50 seconds in.  This song puts the incredible, stylistic vocal range of lead singer and frontman Schuylar Croom on display.  For new listeners it might be easy to mistake Croom’s range for a duo of vocalists.  At 3:05, listeners are treated with one hell of a tasteful, expansive, and well placed guitar solo that leaves listeners wanting more.

Moving forward passed “Sand”, their first single from the album, “Beaufort” opens with a brilliant drumming intro from He Is Legend recent addition, Sam Huff.  This is just one aspect of this song that makes it a percussive masterpiece.  At 0:45 we are treated to a complex layering of muted strumming that produces a rhythm so funky it brings out the stink-face.  In a song with such a strong drive and sharp rhythm, listeners are treated with a smooth and almost disorienting bridge with smooth flowing guitars and vocals, each note seeming to melt into the next.  “Beaufort” accelerates all the way through the end to bring us to the sultry intro to what is probably the album’s most radio ready track, “Silent Gold”.
The heart of this album is filled with songs that remind fans of why they love this band so much with songs that range in styles from their whole career.  Take the groovy, ZZ Top-esque “Alley Cat” reminds us of the more polished sound of Heavy Fruit (2014).  The heavier “Jordan” takes us back to the rough and raw sound of Suck Out The Poison (2006).  “Call Ins”, a display of the band’s diversity of sound and artistic depth is reminiscent of the band’s biggest leap in style on It Hates You (2009).  Finally, “Fritz the Dog” proves why He Is Legend has staying power a completely unique view on how to write a rock song.

Bringing the album to a close, and a big contributor to what pushed my score from an B+ to an A, is “The Garden”.  For only the most die hard fans, this song is a hidden gem that brings us a new chapter to the “China White” series.  For others let me fill you in.  Over a five year, three album period, (I Am Hollywood, Suck Out The Poison, and It Hates You) He Is Legend told a three part story on “China White”, “China White II”, and China White III” which told the story of an obsessive stalker that watches a neighbor tend to her garden as he plans (China White), carries out (China White II), and then regrets, due to loneliness (China White III) the murder of the gardener (my beloved).  **Check out the trilogy here.  In true He Is Legend style, the last album ends with one of the heaviest, most brutal tracks on the album.  “The Garden” returns to our story where we left off after the murder of the gardener, but now instead of a beautifully sad ballad about the stalkers regret, the stalker now wrestles with what he did and his inner demons.
This album shows us that a band can stay true to their original sound while staying relevant and pushing the limits of their own creative ability.  For this, and because there isn’t really a bad song from start to finish, I give “Few” by He Is Legend an A.

I hope you enjoyed this album review.  If you did, please vote, resteem, and follow me for more!  This is likely very apparent in my review, but for the debut steemit Weekly Album Review, I clearly picked an album that I am very fond of.  This will not always be the case and please don’t let that deter you.  I plan to bring you album reviews from a very wide variety of genres in the future.  
Look for my next two reviews coming VERY soon.  I will be reviewing upcoming Monstercat artist Pylot’s “Shadowtask” followed by the long awaited Gorillaz album “Humanz”

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1. "He Is Legend New Album". Indiegogo. Retrieved April 29, 2017.