2003-05-17
Modern dark rock draws its inspiration from the more psychedelic and grotesque artist of the 70s (Velvet under Ground, Van Der Graff Generator and more…) or classical music, old movies, country ballads.
Artists like Nick Cave and Bjork and bands such as This Mortal coil and My Dying Bride presents several sides of a coin with numerous faces.
The main difference between Goth and Dark-Rock is whilst Goth usually transmits despair, death and lose in utmost seriousness, Dark Rock acts in a more mocking, cynic way.
High quality dark-rock can transmit a anything from melancholy to morbid to plain madness via context or subtext alone.
Poor quality dark-rock can just bore the listener to death. And here we reach Legion Within that although it wouldn’t kill anyone to hear “ayumi” there’s still a long way to go before it could be described as high quality.
The album starts with a fly-like sound and into it blends a clean guitar and Lisa Smith’s cello that even if no-one expects her to sound like Apocaliptica should still try to fill up the void.
Over that there’s a very under-produced talking part by singer William Wilson and from there somehow the first song manages to expand on a bass line that doesn’t really sit with the drums part.
But if we ignore the overall production level the composition is quite original even if boring sometimes.
Undoubtedly “ayumi” demands a lot of careful listening and indeed after my 7th hearing I’ve discovered several good parts that unfortunately come in the middle of the most tedious songs.
But Legion Within can create some good tracks when they’re not trying to be pretentious. Songs like “I feel nothing” that reminds of something from “Murder Ballads” and “Broken dreams” (a bit “pulp fiction” style).
I also enjoyed the spiritual Doors style “Free” with psychodelya atmosphere and that excellent groove at the last 2 minutes.
Legion Within has a lot of originality and potential that just might develop into a higher level in their next album.
Tal Galfsky
