UMUR "Legion" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in June 1992. Deicide enjoyed great success with their 1990 self-titled debut album and was at this point already considered one of the most prolific US death metal acts. Therefore the anticipation among fans and press were huge when "Legion" was finally released.

Stylistically "Legion" continues the blasphemous/anti-christian themed death metal of the predecessor but with a slightly more technical approach. The pace is predominantly very fast, and the material is raw and aggressive. 8 tracks distributed over a 29:04 minutes long playing time and then it´s over almost before you know it. Deicide deliver their music with great conviction and a burning passion. Fast-paced precision drumming, fast aggressive riffs and screaming atonal solos, and Glen Benton´s brutal growling/higher pitched screaming vocals in front. There´s the right authentic brutality and mean bite to the proceedings. Compared to the debut album the more technical playing is just one of the changes. Glen Benton´s vocals have also changed quite a bit. He still delivers both deep growling vocals and higher pitched screams, but his growling vocals are more the barking throaty type growls (completely intelligible) than the more brutal growling of the debut album. According to the liner notes it´s a consequence of no pitch shifters or harmonizers being used on the vocals on "Legion". Uncompromising as ever, and probably to proactively defend his new vocal sound against critical comments from reviewers, Glen Benton wrote these words in the liner notes: "This album was recorded with no harmonizer on my vocals, so for all my vocal critics, SUFFER".

The material is generally well written, but there aren´t as many catchy and memorable tracks as the case was on the debut album. The focus here seems to be more on brutality and the technically more challenging playing. Tracks like "Satan Spawn, the Caco-Daemon", "Dead but Dreaming", and "Trifixion" are still quite memorable though, and there´s nothing on the album which isn´t of a relatively high quality. There just aren´t as many tracks which stick as there are on the debut. The sound production is handled by Deicide and Scott Burns, and not surprisingly "Legion" therefore features a pretty classic sounding Morrisound Studios production. Powerful, raw, and brutal. The rhythm guitars are maybe placed slightly too low in the mix, which means the drums, the bass, and the vocals are quite dominating, but it´s not really much of an issue.

Upon conclusion "Legion" is a high quality death metal release. It shows development of style since the debut and while I personally don´t think it quite reaches the heights of it´s predecessor, it´s still a great sophomore album by Deicide, featuring high level musicianship, a powerful and brutal sound production, and good quality songwriting (although some tracks could have been a bit more memorable). A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy I’ve always considered DEICIDE to be a hybrid of the Morbid Angel and Slayer sounds. On the Morbid Angel side we get the death growls, the incessant brutal riffing, drum abuse and those wild loose electric wire guitar solos that whiz out of nowhere, freak out for a short burst and then disappear while on the Slayer side we get the hellish imagery, Satanic worshipping and thrashy guitar and bass delivery. On their second release LEGION, the band tackled a little technical influence from fellow Floridians Death which makes LEGION a somewhat more complex listen than the debut.

While a new technical edge is clearly heard on this brutal rampaging set of highly caffeinated eight tracks, this is clearly rooted in old school death metal much like the debut only adding some extra saucy guitar, bass and spazzed out drum rolls. The songs structures are very typical of the day all doctored up with a possible Suffocation influenced increase in brutality that is guaranteed to leave the listener’s head properly banged and perhaps aching. The addition of creepy sound effects and even backward messages adds to the overall extreme and darkened feel to the album which lasts a mere 29 minutes and 1 second and then without missing a beat ends on the same spastic note as it continues throughout the short but sweet wild ride.

I’ve never really been a huge DEICIDE fan because i wanted them to continue what they started on LEGION and continue down a technical path but this was a one stop and retreat type of album and they would continue on with their more run-of-the-mill death metal sound. For me this is the best of the lot and a classic in the death metal world. So influential is this one that the track “Trifixion” alone has spawned not one but five bands that use it as their name. The album cover was quite different for the day as well conjuring up strange occult symbolism rather than the typical blood and gore of the era. While the relentless drive of the album sounds pretty standard upon first listen, i find the subtleties of the instruments whizzing around at a million miles per second are actually quite interesting and make this a standout in their disco. Sadly tech death would not be their thing and they would settle into their comfort zone.

arcane-beautiful After receiving a good bit of attention from their stellar debut, Deicide decided to do something a little different on their follow up. Possibly taking a page from Death, by making their sound more technical, “Legion” is an album which really shows off the instrumental side to Deicide. Now in the next few years, the band would take the technical side out of their music, one of the reasons being that the band found the songs rather hard to play live (well, its suggested Glen found them too difficult).

One of the slight weaknesses I found on this album was in the guitar mix. The mix on the last album had a very big focus on the guitar, but on this album the guitars had been turned down, which is rather surprising because the guitar work on this album is a lot more technical than their debut. But, having said that, it is good to finally here the bass and drums, because they are just as spectacular.

The album's intro “Satan Spawn, The Caco-Daemon” is rather twisted and evil song. Starting off with some evil song, it has a lot of change in tempos throughout. Brilliant and really evil vocals from Glen.

“Dead But Dreaming” is a rather interesting track, because the lyrics are based on Lovecraft rather than hurling abuse at Jesus. Some pretty great music moments as well.

“In Hell I Burn” is the longest track in the album and musically is one of the most interesting tracks. Musically, the song's riffs has some rather odd sounds, with one riff in particular almost having a groovy Pantera vibe to it.

The album's closer “Revoke The Agitator” is probably one of the heaviest songs on the album. The chorus is incredibly aggressive, and Benton's delivery is like a snake spitting venom.

In conclusion, this is a pretty great follow up. I do prefer the first album, mainly for the pure extremity of it, but as a second album, this was a very brave move. It's sad that these guys play hardly of these tracks live, because there are some real stellar tracks on it. I would recommend giving this album a listen, because it is a rather interesting piece of work.

7.9/10

Warthur Eh, it's alright I guess. Deicide's Legion is a competent enough death metal release which goes for a short-but-sweet approach, whipping through its 8 songs in the space of under half an hour. The problem is, it feels like a mild retread of the debut album, the major difference being that the debut album had a number of really standout songs whereas this one churns away keeping things consistent but without any compositions which really stand out from the others. Still, it's not a complete waste of time since it captures Deicide working a little more technicality into their usual style.