{"id":16872,"date":"2014-01-03T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=16872"},"modified":"2014-01-17T00:46:56","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T00:46:56","slug":"album-review-legion-of-the-damned-ravenous-plague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-legion-of-the-damned-ravenous-plague\/","title":{"rendered":"LEGION OF THE DAMNED – Ravenous Plague (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEGION OF THE DAMNED
Ravenous Plague<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNapalm (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Legion Of The Damned, who hail from the Netherlands, are becoming seasoned veterans and prolific thrash stalwarts considering that Ravenous Plague<\/em> is their sixth studio album in under a decade. The quartet has been around in some form since the early 90s (initially under the Occult moniker) although it wasn\u2019t until 2006 that their debut platter Malevolent Rapture<\/em> crawled from under a rock to rave reviews.<\/p>\n

However it seems that the prolific nature of this band has been its downfall, as I wasn\u2019t too impressed by the 2007 follow-up Sons Of The Jackal<\/em>. Legion Of The Damned have worked hard for two years \u2013 since the release of 2011\u2019s Descent Into Chaos<\/em> \u2013 and I\u2019m glad they\u2019ve taken that extra bit of time to write and record this 11-track album.<\/p>\n

Descent Into Chaos<\/em> was a decent effort but not one that really hit me where it hurts, but this time around I was hoping for the riff to be more blistering, the vocals more sneering and the drums more bruising, and for the most part the band have achieved this type of assault. Yes, the comparisons with some of the German thrash giants are there \u2013 Destruction<\/a> and Sodom are such dominant forces that it\u2019s difficult not to incorporate some of their sound into your own \u2013 and while Legion Of The Damned aren\u2019t the most original bunch of thrashing maniacs, Ravenous Plague<\/em> is an album that matches that debut composition.<\/p>\n

This time round the band have opted to use producer Andy Classen, and this seems to have worked to their advantage as the guitar of Twan van Geel seem quite dense and not as clean cut as those of the departed Richard Ebisch, who featured on the last opus. Vocally, Maurice Swinkels is still a frothing beast of a frontman and Erik Fleuren\u2019s drums are extremely vicious in the assaults of \u2018Ravenous Abominations\u2019, \u2018Morbid Death\u2019 and one of my favourite thrashers, \u2018Black Baron\u2019.<\/p>\n

Legion Of The Damned are not interested in playing overtly elaborate technical metal and leave the progression to other bands, but if you\u2019re after a flesh-mincing batch of songs that are guaranteed to have you smashing the room up, then Ravenous Plague<\/em> will be your cup of tea.<\/p>\n

Right from the off \u2018Howling For Armageddon\u2019 mixes pace with sinister snarls, and the band rarely leaves this method of mayhem, taking the listener into battle right to the end with \u2018Strike Of The Apocalypse\u2019 which emerges with a war-torn chug of rancid guitars and leviathan drums. But for those of you seeking just a touch of variety amidst the black smoke then try a visit to the \u2018Doom Priest\u2019 to confess your sins. This pivotal track is a doom-laden plod for the first minute but continues to offer melody the harder it gets, but it\u2019s the track which epitomises the Legion Of The Damned sound despite its obvious lack of invention.<\/p>\n

So, Ravenous Plague<\/em> is a return to form and one that proves that there is still space for this type of no frills thrash metal, but then again there has always been room for bands who have that distinctly European flavour about their sound. This isn\u2019t a groundbreaking release, but Legion Of The Damned never set out to break boundaries but merely to break bones and after a few spins of this album I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll be keen to tend to a few wounds the band has inflicted on your thrashed soul.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEGION OF THE DAMNEDRavenous Plague Napalm (2014)Rating: 7.5\/10 Legion Of The Damned, who hail from the Netherlands, are becoming seasoned veterans and prolific thrash stalwarts considering that Ravenous Plague is their sixth studio album in under a decade. The quartet has been around in some form since the early 90s (initially under the Occult moniker) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,992],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-legion-of-the-damned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16872"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16876,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16872\/revisions\/16876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}