The Legacy - Beyond Hurt, Beyond Hell

Release Date: 23rd June 2008

Label: Visible Noise

Hardcore. It’s an acquired taste. To enjoy it, you must get pleasure from power riffs, furious drumming and vocals so harsh it could possible perforate an ear drum. The members of The Legacy are well versed in all these features of Hardcore music, so much so that the four piece are proclaiming themselves as the messiahs of the UK Hardcore scene. Their debut LP, Beyond Hurt, Beyond Hell, doesn’t really do much to justify this grandiose proclamation.

Starting off with Alpha, things get off to a decent start, an instrumental introduction which leads the listener into a false sense of security, like things aren’t going to be that bad at all. From here on in, things go downhill like someone falling from the peak of Everest. The next song, Ill Fated, is a physical assault on the listener, everything is so fast paced that it’s almost impossible make anything out, it’s only saving blessing is that it’s just over a minute long.

There are a few moments where things don’t seem to be too bleak, Sands And Time and The Sun Wields Mercy for instance. They both start off slow paced, giving time to catch breath, but unfortunately they follow the same formulaic structure half way through, which makes one wonder if the rest of the album is like this. Unfortunately it is. The fortunate thing is that the majority of the songs are less than three minutes long, therefore the thirteen song LP is only half an hour long. Thank goodness.

The vocalist, Adam Cox, has quite clearly taken inspiration from The Gallows as there are elements of the band in most of the songs. Quick, furious and an onslaught on the listener. The vocals are so similar it’s quite unreal, it’s just a shame that The Legacy don’t have the same song writing talents. Maybe if the band had tried to vary their style just a smidge, they could have broken through these quite obvious comparisons.

Ashes To Ashes is quite clearly the standout track. It strays away from the obviously formulaic trend and veers in to screamo and there is a tad of punk in there too. It’s wonderful to hear a song in which there has been a lot of effort in the structural layout. It’s such a crying shame that this isn’t more prevalent in the rest of the album.

Even though it’s only half an hour long, Beyond Hurt, Beyond Hell is still such a horrible prospect. If these are the Saviours of UK Hardcore, then the genre is doomed.

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The Legacy: On the internet

Official Site

MySpace

Circuits - The Choir Invisible (Track)

Release: 23^rd June 2008

Label: Try Science

It’s always upsetting to listen to a song that has so much promise, yet fails to deliver. It’s infinitely more upsetting than listening to an out and out horrible song. Unfortunately, this is a case of the former. Circuits have been lauded by many sources for their debut LP, Bright As Midnight, but it seems that the praise may not be apt for such a languid single as The Choir Invisible.

The pacing seems to be all skewed. It seems as if the band have tried to utilise it, so they can build up to a spectacular finish. Needless to say, this doesn’t happen. The lyrics are also uninspired and have no depth. The melodies, however, are very summer-y and light, which is the only thing that saves this from being unlistenable. There just doesn’t seem to be a saving grace in this 4 minute ode, which is an utter shame as there’s a glimmer of potential here. All it requires is some well needed cultivation.

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Circuits: On the internet

Official Site

Elle Milano - Laughing All The Way To The Plank (Track)

Release: 23^rd June 2008

Label: Brighton Electric

With the recent spurt of bland and boring Indie bands surfacing in the past couple of years, such as The Kooks and The View etc, Elle Milano has defied preconceptions of what “Indie” actually is. Coming across as more of an Indie / Pop Punk hybrid, their latest single is a dance floor stormer that is sure to flood the clubs as hipsters dance so hard that they forget about their perfectly styled hair cuts.

The pacing seems just right, until it approaches the chorus, in which Adam M. Crisp’s vocal veers from singing to full on screeching along with a perfect combination of staccato piano and honey drenched guitar riffs. The background vocals add an air of ethereality to the mix, which just makes you realise the little idiosyncrasies of the instrumentation, the Bells, Whistles and Glockenspiel. The sad state of affairs is that this masterpiece won’t be recognised by the general Radio 1 listening public. What an utter travesty.

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Elle Milano: On the internet

Official Site
MySpace