Published June 15, 2012
It’s a rare event that a debut album from a relatively new band could bring about severe fits of nostalgia for times not so long ago, yet easily forgotten. Though the members of LEGEND aren’t n00bsauce at all, it could be said the product was a bit unexpected. Of course, they’re actually old enough to have possibly experienced a real goth club once upon a time, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that’s the case. It took me until the middle of the album, on the track “Violence,” to pinpoint my flashback: Project Pitchfork. That’s what it is.
With its goth aesthetic and gravewave genres spreading like a wildfire into this cultural landscape, ever veering away from positive dance-pop/indie dominance (or at least, occasionally, kicking against the pricks), this album is incredibly à propos. It has all the essential trappings of dark, depressing music that’s still fun and danceable, in the same vein as Dorsetshire or The Tear Garden; the clean production and dramatic effect management taking it just over the top without getting embarrassing, with lyrical storytelling moments of personal revelation, at other times, like the song “Benjamin Bloodline,” feeling like a plot to a graphic novel.
However, it’s not completely on point. The title track is a near-miss of a power-anthem, and they could manage to expand their key range and mix up the pace of the beats more often. One ballad does not count as variety!
But this is good. This is the kind of thing that I can listen to, close my eyes, and somehow find myself 11 years ago, in a long-gone club in a faraway city, standing off the edge of a dance floor swirling with black latex, velvet and eyeliner, watching people do the this-is-how-we-dance-in-Germany.
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