40th anniversary re-issue on black vinyl with gatefold cover,booklet, insert, poster and a 5-track mini cd featuring the 1978demo

A viking metal album from 1979. And I thought I had seeneverything. Next thing I know, the sky really will be falling. Butuntil then, this is Legend’s famed debut From The Fjords, and it’sa milestone in creative heavy metal. While it leaned toward themore rockish side of things, they had long, progressively-tingedsongs with extremely catchy and very metallic riffs, way ahead ofmost other US bands at the time. Sure, there was metal around inthe late 70s, but this was an epic viking metal album from fucking79, for Pete’s sake. Nobody else was writing stuff like this for acouple more years, not until around the time Manilla Road hit theirstride. But enough with the history lesson, the band was fronted byKevin Nugent, who had a pleasantly calm and clear voice, yet stillmanaged to sound convincing and interesting. He’s one of the mostrelaxed singers I’ve ever heard, and it’s really a shame that hepassed away a few years after this album was recorded. There aren’tmany other singers like this guy. He also handled the guitars here,which have a noticeable Southern twang to them at times, and alsoproduce some of the catchiest riffs ever. His solos are crystalclear and very well handled. The bass seems to follow the guitarand provides some extra crunch to them, which is, of course, alwayswelcome. The drummer, Raymond Frigon, is however, one of the bestdrummers I’ve ever heard. Yet he’s the main detractor on thisalbum. It seems like there’s nothing this guy can’t do, and it’s ashame we never saw him in any other bands after this, but here hejust doesn’t seem to fit. Legend wasn’t an overly complex band, andtheir riffs were pretty simple and straightforward, as were thevocal melodies. So why is this guy showing off every chance hegets? The Iron Horse for example has a 3 minute drum solo that justkind of breaks up the song and makes it hard to listen to. On theother tracks here, it’s mostly okay, because you can tune it out,but he seems to like providing as many fills and beats as hepossibly can, and it’s annoying. No doubt, he’s talented, but theband would fit better with more simplistic drumming, nothing overthe top like they did here. The album starts off with two killertracks; Destroyer and The Wizards Vengeance. The former always endstoo soon, and it’s a shame, because it’s got a great main riff andawesome lyrics, plus a very cool vocal performance by Nugent.There’s simply nothing wrong with it, at all. Classic, classic,classic…this song will never get old. The latter is an anthemic,upbeat jingle that I first knew from the cover Slough Feg did of iton their Twilight of the Idols album. The Golden Bell is probablymy favourite song here, a seven minute epic filled with timechanges and packed with great lyrics and melodies, along with somecool chanting vocals. Even the drumming is not too distractinghere. The leadwork is nothing short of stunning, and veryreminiscent of the classic rock bands of the time (no surprise,really). Words really cannot do this song justice, it’s simplyperfect. If every song were like these three, then I’d just stopthe review now and give the album a perfect score, but about halfof this album is useless filler, and it makes me wonder why thiswasn’t just an EP with the four good songs on it. The Confrontationis good, but fairly pointless, and the two following tracks arejust unmemorable as Hell. The Iron Horse is another instrumental,and isn’t as good as it should be due to that drum solo I mentionedpreviously, which just kills the whole thing. Now, the title trackis another great one, and I’m glad it closed the album. It leavesyou on a good note, with probably the catchiest riff on the album,plus lots of time changes and unfortunately, drum wankery. Thelyrics are also fantastic here, telling another viking tale, and itstill amazes me how far ahead of their time Legend were. So here wehave a disc of quite above average, yet flawed, epic heavy metal.For fans of the genre, this is mandatory, and you will really loveLegend. It’s not without flaws, but those can be overlooked infavor of the shining gems also to be found within this littletreasure trove of heavy metal mastery. It’s a shame they neverreleased anything else. Highly recommended.

Track list:
1. The Destroyer
2. The Wizards Vengeance
3. The Golden Bell
4. The Confrontation
5. R.A.R.Z.
6. Against The Golds
7. The Iron Horse
8. From The Fjords

Cd track list:
1. The Destroyer-demo 1978
2. The Confrontation-demo 1978
3. R.A.R.Z.-demo 1978
4. The Court Jester-demo 1978
5. Aramis The Lover-demo 1978

Condition cover: nm

Condition vinyl: nm

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Skickgradering:

M(mint)/NM(near mint) = Nyskick/Mycket bra exemplar
EX (excellent) = Mycket fin och välvårdad
VG+ (very good +) = Bra skick, normalanvänd skiva
VG (very good) = Sliten men spelar ändå bra
G (good) = Väldigt sliten skiva som kan hacka
+/- = mindre skillnaderinomgraderingsområdet