So, a band with ‘Legend’ in their name release an album with ‘Legend’ in the title, on a label that also contains the word ‘Legend’. That’s not confusing at all. Drummer Heiko Burst and guitarist Siggi Maier were both in Abraxas year sago, but only put together this band in 2010. Since then they have been creating a stir in Germany, winning various awards, but this is their debut album. These guys have obviously taken Savatage as their starting point and have decided that their sound is so good why move on from there? And when a band performs as well as these guys who can blame them? Singer Selin Schönbeck uses the piano to great effect, bringing forward thoughts of the masterpiece that is “Gutter Ballet”, but there are plenty of times where he concentrates on just fronting this powerful quintet as they blast along with some incredible melodic and hard hitting metal.
They fully understand the use of light and shade, slow and quick, and hit the mark far more often than they miss. There is just no way that this sounds like a debut as they exude confidence with great harmonies, twists and turns and obviously don’t take themselves too seriously (listen to “This Holy Dark” and there is a vocal harmony that definitely shows what I mean). They can riff as if they are the offshoot of Helloween, but it is to Savatage that they definitely tip their hat. Overall this is an impressive debut and I only hope that we get to hear a lot more from these guys, and soon.
