With a siren’s wail, Legacy of Disorder opens up their latest effort, Last Man Standing. The sheer relentlessness of the first song, Thorns, tells the listener loud and clear what this experience will be about: pure metal onslaught. In the vein of Slayer, Testament, Exodus, and any number of powerful metal outfits, New Zealand now has Legacy of Disorder who are in fact creating their own legacy.
Although most of its members hail from New Zealand, fast-rising metallists Legacy of Disorder’s sound largely resembles the power metal that such renowned US bands like Pantera perfected and popularized. And as you’ll discover with their second release overall, ‘Last Man Standing’, it is only a matter of time until
Legacy of Disorder takes their rightful spot alongside the top modern day metal acts. “We think our style fits in well with today’s metal scene,” explains the group’s lead singer, James Robinson. “We have elements of a wide range of metal – all into one robust unit. Legacy of Disorder shows in a lot of ways the evolution of this genre, but with a unique sound that no one can replicate.”
With tunes such as Punish All, March to Death, Last Man Standing, Impaler, and Warrior Gene, there is no mistaking the subject matter as light listening. That is not say that LoD does not have an excellent sense of melody- but everything has its place. Legacy seem to be very concerned with ‘in your face’ metal at maximum volume. Lyrically there is no pussyfooting either. Brutal, direct, punishing, and violent the imagery created is of your favorite comic book fight scenes come to life before your eyes. Their execution of rythym to anchor their tunes while the guitars wail and crunch works extremely well, especially with some peppered in sound effects or ‘movie-like’ sound bites, thus creating a cinematic experience.
Alongside Robinson, Legacy of Disorder consists of fellow New Zealanders Rana Freilich (lead guitarist) and Jason Keill (bass), as well as Texas native Matt Thompson (drums). And there’s a reason why the lone star state provided the group with Thompson – Legacy of
Disorder has formed a tight bond with Dallas-based producer Sterling Winfield, who has worked in the past with Pantera, Damageplan, and Hellyeah. “Naturally, being fans of Pantera, we wanted to work with the same mastermind behind the scenes of such a great band,” points out Freilich. “After doing our demo here in New Zealand, we wanted the album to be the best it could, so we jumped on a plane, headed to Dallas, got stuck in with Sterling on our debut album [2008′ self-titled release] – which sounds great – and have been friends
and worked together ever since.””Sterling always keeps us on our toes, which is great in a studio environment, and draws the best out of each member – which is why we chose to work with Sterling again. This being our second album with Sterling, it felt like we were all on the same page. As a whole, there are many awesome memories – Rana’s noise gate pedal’s ridiculous battery consumption, James’
pantless antics, the bands’ ridiculous coffee consumption, and more laughs and funny stuff than you can shake a stick at. We think Sterling really got a taste of us Kiwis in our own environment!”
And as evidenced by such hard-hitting standout tracks as “Break,” “March to Death,” and the album’s title tune, the quartet is certainly starting to hit its metallic stride. “We would have to
say that we really enjoy all of the songs equally,” admits Keill. “It’s so hard to pick a favorite when you have worked on something that you have poured a lot of time and emotion into. Each song has moments that make my hair stand on end. It’s kind of like asking,’Which of your children do you like the best?'”
As one would figure from the explosiveness of their recordings thus
far, Legacy of Disorder is one ferocious live beast when they hit the stage, which Thompson confirms, when asked what can fans expect from catching the band live. “A high energy, hard-hitting precision live
set, showcasing each band member’s ability and presence, equating to a brutal live show. We look forward to setting in motion a tour for North America very soon.”
Pittsburgher’s can catch Legacy of Disorder when they play with DevilDriver and GWAR at Mr. Small’s in Millvale Nov. 26
Pittsburgh Music Magazine 