Of Legends
Stranded
Seasons Of Mist

If you’ve got a successful, pop-rock/electro project where does your next musical pathway lead you? Country AND western? OR do you decide to actually plug your guitar in, throw up your first and little finger and below the words SSSSLLLAAAAYYYEEERR? To be honest, I’d probably just watch the snooker. Of Legends is the side project of Luis Dubuc, mastermind behind Texas outfit, The Secret Handshake. It’s hard to believe it’s the same person to be quite honest. Melody and tuneful arrangements are set on fire and kicked down some stairs into a pack of hungry wolves. On ‘Death Eyes’ the guitars warp and shriek with equal ferocity to Dubuc’s powerful shouts, which stands apart from traditional screaming and lends something to Jessie Leach as well as Blacktusk.

“WHAT THE FUUUCCCKKK IS HAPPENING TO US??” roars Dubuc on ‘Off Guard’, which reels and tosses like a fat pitcher, as both the rhythm section and the dual guitar attack fight for supremacy, whilst channelling this grinding yowl of hate. ‘Save The Humans’ is pure groove-metal shifts, stopping and starting with such an intense stabbing persistence, it’s like a serial killer methodically carrying out his daily routine. ‘We Wish Death’ features some nice (I mean nasty) electronic swirls and rises and persistently stamps through some fairly dense metal. How Dubuc keeps up such a barking shout throughout is beyond me – he neither sounds pretentious or trying to hard; it’s a venomous cacophony of guttural bile. ‘Cannibal King’ is more the same, but a harsher, thrash element has been mixed in – the drums turn into blast-beat attacks of pure noise, whilst the guitars swing between a detuned drone and scrawling math rock chaos.

This is far, far too good to be a side project; Of Legends absolutely kill it – the most exciting and heaviest thing I’ve heard all year.



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Review by Ross Macdonald