LEGACY OF EMPTINESS - Legacy of Emptiness [Review]
Genre: Symphonic Melodic Black MetalLabel: Ketzer Records
Release date: July 4th, 2011
Reviewer: Karim Tarek
I guess most of you might have not heard yet about the newborn Norwegian band, Legacy Of Emptiness; they are a brand new Extreme Metal band that only surfaced in the middle of the last year, but guess what, they mostly deliver 15-year old tunes!
Legacy Of Emptiness is mainly the brainchild of Kjell-Ivar Aarli, Øyvind Rosseland, and the one man you’ve all probably heard of, as I pleasantly had the chance to interview him before here at Metality: Eddie Risdal (V:28, Ancestral Legacy, Sykdom, Misvita, V:O:I:D). With Eddie responsible for guitar, vocal, and programming duties, Aarli on bass, and Rosseland on keyboards, it revived from the ashes of the very old Ancestral Legacy as the aforementioned was typically the Ancestral Legacy lineup at that time, and they’ve proven a great sense of congruity and accord since then, which was clearly shown in their productivity as they managed to pull off a couple of quality demos, but not too long before did Aarli and Rosseland leave the band to Eddie, marking a pivotal juncture in the band’s history as its sound happened to change drastically afterwards.
However, one year ago, Eddie, Aarli, and Rosseland decided to reunite again under the name of Legacy Of Emptiness, reminiscent of the music they had written back then in 15 years, and I personally think that was a wise idea because that “music” they wrote back then is literally a legacy that should never have gone into limbo. They gathered up those old songs and added up to them some new ones, and finally decided to give that whole debut record the production it deserved by passing it up to the renowned Swedish master, Dan Swanö, to put his final touches on their self-entitled first full-length.
You cannot certainly classify Legacy Of Emptiness’ music, but it’d mainly lie under the shadows of Black Metal, Dark Metal, and Symphonic Metal. It has some straight-up, in-your-face Black Metal moments, but it’s still not what would I call pure Black Metal although it clearly incorporates a lot of its elements, most important of which are blast-beat drumming and vocals. It’s also somewhat in penchant for the old-school Symphonic Metal in terms of vintage keyboards and their keeping up with and highlighting the music.
It’s safe to say that the album as a whole is a journey into the deep pits of Dark Metal with all its musical diversities and variations. You can find moments in which pure Black Metal is existent, others that are Heavy Metal-influenced, others with vintage solos… and so on. Even the vocals, Eddie skillfully manages to control them to actually come up with an outcome that would sound exactly as the music requires; sometimes very high-pitched, some other times deep and guttural… He is, by the way, one of my absolute favorite vocalists of all time since his days with V:28, I could distinguish his versatile and diverse voice from that of a million other vocalists. Guitars, bass, and keyboards are remarkably harmonic and manage to help out the rather atmospheric sound.
So, the bottom-line is that you must be in the mood for some diversity, darkness, and groove in order to enjoy this album. It also does have a couple of remarkable guest appearances as Roy Turple on vocals, and Dan Swanö on lead guitars. I guess it’s a good album to listen to at the afternoon while having your tea – it’s not too sharp nor too mellow; it’s just moderate and genial, and I would have no problem listening to it over and over again.
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