Legacy of Disorder: Last Man Standing

A band from New Zealand that is repeatedly being described in reviews as playing in the similar vein to Pantera and Hellyeah? Is there anything NOT to like here?

Actually – yes, there is. But let's start with the good things about Last Man Standing, Legacy of Disorder's sophomore effort. First of all, it features a pretty wonderful title track that simply blows your underwear off with its mixture of aggression and melody. Yeah, you read that right: melody. The otherwise rather one-note vocalist James Robinson shows more range here and I would love to hear him switch to such more varied singing for good. The two opening tracks, "Thorns" and "Punish All", are somehow similar to "Last Man Standing" in how they manage to weave some nice melodies in between all the typical sonic brutality, but they sound just a bit less perfect than the title track. "Treading the Tainted Path", on the other hand, will entrance you with its powerful grooves, and "Break" emanates such addictive energy that anyone who runs out of Prozac should immediately play this song as a substitute. The problem is, though, that the rest of the album is much weaker than these five tracks, and at some point one becomes slightly bored with the whole thing. Plus there's one bona fide stinker here as well.

It's called "March to Death" and it can really, really get on your nerves. I mean, I do understand it might have been a highly ambitious artistic concept to add all these Nazi shouts and Soviet speeches in the background – even if it sounds much more like a desperate stab at being controversial to me – but listening to such things simply isn't my idea of fun. One good thing about the track is the nice, atmospheric intro that seems to be promising a Metallica or Megadeth ballad. Soon afterwards it all turns into one big, hugely irritating metal cliché, though, and the endlessly repeated line "Left, right, left, right" makes the track even more of a test of endurance.

Don't get me wrong – I don't hate Legacy of Disorder just because one of their tracks drives me mad. I just wish they were a bit more careful when choosing material for this album - or for the future releases, for that matter. There's some truly great stuff on Last Man Standing, but it's just impossible to enjoy it all equally from start to finish.

Tracklisting:
01. Thorns
02. Punish All
03. March to Death
04. Last Man Standing
05. Treading the Tainted Path
06. Break
07. Hell Tonight
08. Impaler
09. Warrior Gene
10. Came to Fight

Added: October 25th 2012
Reviewer: Bartek Baszylk
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2538
Language: english

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