He Is Legend’s fifth full length release, ‘few’ is out via Spinefarm Records on April 28th and it is worth the wait.
If you’re a fan that’s been waiting with baited breath and a light pocket, for this fan funded release to finally come through, you’re not going to be disappointed. Having met 124% of their funding to self-produce ‘few’, He Is Legend have poured their souls straight into the wax and it shows.
The first two singles, ‘Air Raid’ and ‘Sand’ are also the first and second tracks on the record, setting the tone for what is to come, with huge riffs and vocal depth that show Schuylar’s growth from 2014’s ‘Heavy Fruit’.
This is a record that demands to be turned up and raged along too. If you don’t whip out your air guitar for that final shred on ‘Air Raid’, you’ve surely got to be missing a little part of your metal soul.
There is a beautiful sense of completion through ‘few’, nothing feels as though it was just dropped in to fill space.
As far as track progressions go, ‘Call Ins’ into ‘Eastern Locust’ is achingly beautiful, written to complement each other, and the amount of thought He Is Legend have put into the journey you take through the record is staggering. The tracks work together like the crest of a wave, moving from light and airy to crashing over you in the most satisfying, soul tugging kind of build and rush.
‘Fritz The Dog’ was the first track Schuylar recorded vocals on, and it stands out on the record. It’s got a brilliant drunken rhythm guitar line, with a swagger that separates it from the other tracks, inspired by the idea of a cranky old dog that doesn’t want to be touched. You can expect lyrics like, “you knew this was coming, you’ve been here before, now I’m coming creeping through your dog door” to be crooned at you by Schuylar in a menacing tone.
Schuylar Croom declares, “This is dedicated to the people who supported us through everything, I was inspired by the words of Helena Blavatsky. She’s basically the godmother of the occult, and she dedicated one of her books to the few. Basically, that means the few that follow the way. I thought it was very fitting for what we do. It took just a few artists and a few thousand of our fans to come through and say, ‘Fuck yeah, we want you to do another record.’ We left it up to them.”
And aren’t we all glad that the few, became the many, and those many funded this record. It was a long time coming, but it easily stands up to the legacy ‘It Hates You’ and ‘Heavy Fruit’ built for the band.
RHIAN WILKINSON