NIGHT LEGION
NIGHT LEGION "Fight Or Fall"
By Dr. Abner Mality
Stu Marshall is one of the biggest names in the Australian power metal/true metal scene and he lends his talents to this Aussie band. "Fight Or Fall" is the second offering from this outfit. If the album title strikes you as pretty typical stuff, it gives you a good indication of what the music is like as well. This is solid but utterly predictable power metal that is rather by the numbers.
There's a lot of the usual European power metal sound here, mixed with overtones of DIO, QUEENSRYCHE and ICED EARTH. I like the style but there's a point when things get a bit too rote and NIGHT LEGION reaches that point. Marshall has at least surrounded himself with strong players here. Vocalist Louie Gorgievski (not the usual rock star name, it must be admitted) has got a strong set of pipes somewhere between Ripper Owens and Tate/LaTorre. He hits all the right notes but doesn't have a distinctive tone. That's the case for the band as a whole...great players, not much of a distinctive sound.
The tunes either are fast and peppy power metal all the way through ("Babylon Burns", "The Enemy) or they start as ominous ballads and work their way into heavier territory (the title track, "Harvest of Sin"). We get some hot twin lead work ("At World's End") and end with an emotional epic ("The Hand of Death"). Along the way, everything sounds just as it should. A bit too much for me. This is not bad, but far from essential.