The Spear of Longinus 2011

"The third album by blasphemic the US death metallers Infernal Legion, "The Spear of Longinus" is a slab of old school metal - straight in your face and no buts about it.

Rather than opting for breakneck speed and blastbeats galore, Infernal Legion's music is mostly kept at midpace tempos and come across as being quite heavy, not unlike Bolt Thrower. Staying away from high speed and uptempo aggression, Infernal Legion have plenty of space for crushing riffs, tempo changes and loads of melody plus, of course, loads of gloom and doom.

The melodicism is particularly appealing. Some of the melodies on the album have the form of guitar leads, but there is another aspect to Infernal Legion's sense of melody on this album. While death metal to the bone, Infernal Legion still appear to find inspiration in melodic death metal and make use of the same sort of tremolo-picked harmonies that you find in a lot of black metal, and this works brilliantly.

The vocals are, true to the death metal genre, primarily deep and guttural, almost burpy, and this vocal style goes well together with the heavy and brutal, yet hauntingly melodic, music. The musicianship itself is top notch across the board, and Infernal Legion have produced some well written and strong songs on this album.

"The Spear of Longinus" is a lesson in the power of old school death metal and an example of how death metal and black metal can be fused together without betraying wither genre. Fans of Bolt Thrower, early Morbid Angel, and old school death metal in general should check out this album, which might also appeal to some fans of black metal.

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"