DEATH DIES – Legione review

 DEATH DIES – Legione

Black Tears of Death

https://myspace.com/deathdies

I have to be honest with you… This is the first time I come across this band and it’s a real shame cause they prove to be worthy of our attention! The good thing, though, is that this first acquaintance with them comes with a compilation CD celebrating the band’s 20^th anniversary so I’m, in a way lucky, because I’m given the chance to listen to some of their best compositions.

Let’s take things from the beginning though. DEATH DIES was formed in 1995 a fact that makes them one of the first and oldest black metal bands. They hail from Italy, but this is a fact that doesn’t show, since their songs follow the old school Scandinavian principles. This means that “Legione” contains raw tracks with no mellow or melodic parts or keyboards… no sort of innovation whatsoever here, just pure black metal and dark, gloomy atmospheres. In some of the songs, though, you’ll listen to some thrash or even death metal enrichments, but that’s all. Intense rhythm section, blastbeats, sharp guitars and demonic growls are the ingredients DEATH DIES uses, which as I mentioned earlier are enriched with some atmospheric melodies and some clean vocal recitations. Now, the last thing I’d like to mention here is that this 12 track compilation contains re-released versions of older songs played by the current DEATH DIES line up. More particularly the first 5 are DEATH DIES’ songs taken from their previous releases while the next are EVOL’s, SATANEL’s and NEGATRON’s songs, bands that existed before the formation of DEATH DIES. The album closes with a cover of ROTTING CHRIST’s “Fgmenth thy Gift” and overall I think it’s a really great choice for the fans of old school black metal who like to look for and discover underground gems.

Christine  Parastatidou