Get ready to shred
He Is Legend is back and heavier than ever with their latest album, Endless Hallway. And if shredding is wrong, then it’s time to lock ‘em up and throw away the key, because the killer guitar riffs have completely eviscerated everything previously known about heavy metal.
Despite lead vocalist Schuylar Croom’s recent health issues, he’s managed to deliver some seriously powerful and poignant vocals to accompany He Is Legend’s glass-shattering instrumentals. Although the band had to forfeit their ShipRocked slot along with some other shows due to Croom’s health, Endless Hallway is here and ready to burrow deep into the metal core of thrashers everywhere. They serve as a stark reminder that pain often fuels some of the most influential music of a generation, with musicians such as Kurt Cobain using his physical afflictions as music fodder. And Croom is no different.
With a raging beat and vocals that refuse to back down, Endless Hallway ticks all the boxes of fans looking to sink their teeth into a hard rock album with as much soul as it has grit. As songs pump out one-liners such as “Five, four, three, two / One more bite and then I’m through,” any metal enthusiast is left wondering just who Croom is set to tear the town asunder with, his emotion real and raw and the music poised for full-fledged headbanger status.
Since White Bat’s release in 2019, He Is Legend has been perfecting its sound while gearing up to expose the band’s true ethos. They’re masterful musicians so in sync that listeners wonder where one ends and the other begins and if there’s some sort of telepathy afoot. He Is Legend delivers a slew of fast-paced songs that still retain the melody needed to enrapture listeners outside the heavy metal genre without losing the appeal for those looking to scream for the sake of screaming.
The very flavor of He Is Legend is that of a shared passion for something bigger than the independent artist. As they blast out some seriously tight metal courtesy of killer bridge pickups and the perfect amount of bass and distortion, He Is Legend sets the tone for metal that shreds with purpose as evidenced on songs such as “Circus Circus”.
While it’s easy to take lyrics at face value and assume Croom shares a room with the inhabitants of The Overlook Hotel, “Circus Circus” delivers more than meets the eye. A deeper dive into its libretto makes the listener wonder if the “ghosts” in question are a metaphor for something deeper, something darker living within Croom’s subconscious.
Metal is more than assaulting the fretboard or instituting a well-timed kick to the distortion pedal. It’s about fueling a cacophony of sound with the emotions that make humans tick, and turning it into something more powerful than originally anticipated. The more unhinged emotion delivered by a musician, the more powerful the punch once it slaps the listener in the face. And He Is Legend has done just that. They’ve pulled themselves from their reverie, grabbed their guitar cables, and announced that they’re back, they’re ready to shred, and that the world is going to listen.
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