How to start this year with a good feeling? Well, I can advice you to try this new album of Dutch thrash masters Legion of the Damned. On this album
their new member; guitar player Twan van Geel can be heard for the first time and he fits in perfectly. The style on this new album isn't different from their last few albums and that makes this a real hammer again.
Predecessor 'Descent into Chaos'
was produced by Peter Tägtgren, but the band decided to return to their regular producer Andy Classen and he deliveres a fine job. A lot of riffs on the new album
have been written by Twan van Geel and I personally like the new songs better than those on 'Descent into Chaos'. I can't put the finger on it why, but I just do.
At the moment there almost isn't a thrash band that is more riff based than
Legion of the Damned. Every song has the hypnotizing riffs and that in combination with the tight
rhythm section does it for me. Vocalist Maurice Swinkels sounds aggressive as always and shows that he is still one of the better singers in the genre. This is the bands first album for Napalm Records and
it is a new step in their career. They didn't take anything for granted and have used an intro written by Jo Blankenburg (who, wrote music for the movies: 'The Hunger Games', 'Harry Potter' and 'X-Men'). The cover artwork is made by Wes Benscoter, also known for his artwork for Vader, Slayer, Autopsy
and Hypocrisy.
Together with the well written songs it makes this 'Ravenous Plague' an album, which suits perfectly in their anthology, but which doesn't bring anything new. To me that isn't a problem at all, because I just like this Legion of the Damned thrash style! The thrash standard for 2014 has been set!
