|
 |
LEGEND
Death in the Nursery
(Workshop) 1982
|
I
had heard great things about the English NWOBHM band
Legend, but ego kinda got in my way. I thought I knew
enough about the wave already but the minute you think
of yourself an expert you’ll meet someone that will
inform you that you are in fact, just scratching the
surface, a dumbass for having stopped digging in. So I
put Death in the Nursery in the backburner, set
it to rest, forgot about it for a few months and when
the time came for me to be bored as shit, I gave it a
spin. What a fucking record!
I ain’t saying
that they are at early Def Leppard and early-to-mid career Iron
Maiden levels, but if you have gotten into the NWOBHM, have
gotten past the first tier and have spent some time listening to
bands like Jaguar and Bashful Alley you know there are some
clunkers in there. So amongst the less known NWOBHM bands (even
though I am hesitant to investigate their other releases for
fear of being disappointed) Legend are kings and this album is a
super cult classic.
The music is
fierce, flawlessly executed, tasteful as only the British could
make it. The guitars are blazing. Awesome!!! The riffs are
killer and the songs sublime. This has a softer edge than Iron
Maiden, but the levels of aggression were on pair to those of
the first recordings of Def Leppard. Easy!
Death in the
Nursery came out in 1982, only one year after their self-titled
debut was released by the same label and even by then, the band
had only been together for a couple of years. That’s surprising,
especially noticing how well-gelled these songs sound. Very
natural indeed.
 Legend come
from the Channel Island of Jersey and were originally comprised
of Mike Lezala on Vocals, Pete Haworth on Guitar, Marco Morosino
on Guitar, Eggy Aubert on Bass and Dave Whitley on drums. Like
with every good NWOBHM band, had Legend not been reinforced
solidly in the six strings they would not have been half of what
they were. Guitarist Peter Haworth doesn’t sound like a metal
guitarist. That’s probably why his style is so clean and
tasteful. He carries these songs with grace and bravado, but he
never moves on full-throttle. If anything the wild solo that
opens “Lazy Women” shows that he loved Ritchie Blackmore more
than Tony Iommi.
“Prisoner” is a
stunning piece. It starts quiet, clean and mid-paced, only to
violently grow to a stellar flashy explosion of guitars.
Vocalist Mike Lezala had a clean tone, one that could have
placed him in front of other hard rock combos of the time so he
takes the reins at times coming close to a grunt but never
overstepping his own boundaries and always maintaining certain
AOR serenity. Most songs deserve special mention because this is
album is that solid, but describing song by song does no one any
good. I’ll just say check out the up tempo gallop of the title
track, the soaring chorus in “Why Don’t You Kill Me” and the
swift groove of “Anthrax Attack”. There is not one clunker in
this album, it deserves much more attention.
Official Site
|
