Review by Ben for Deicide - Legion (1992)

Deicide’s debut self-titled album may have been an awesomely vicious death metal album, but with Legion these US legends tried to one up themselves. The sheer ferocity of these 8 tracks is incredible. That’s not to say this is a better album than Deicide, as I think the song writing on the debut was a fair bit superior. But if you want to get yourself completely pumped up and filled with aggression, just let loose Satan Spawn, the Caco-Daemon and go nuts.

The two main reasons why Legion is so intense are Glen Benton’s brutal vocal performance, and Steve Asheim’s inhuman drumming performance. Benton’s growls and screams are layered thick and the effect is pure evil. Asheim’s drumming is relentless, with the whole kit copping a beating seemingly simultaneously. Sure, the riffs are decent enough throughout, but I don’t love the guitar sound and it’s all a bit choppy at times. The leads as usual for Deicide are pretty rubbish too. But these tracks come at you so fast you’ll hardly have time to differentiate all that’s happening before you’re pressing play again with a filthy big grin on your face.

At around 30 minutes in length, Legion certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome. The two best moments are opener Satan Spawn, the Caco-Daemon and closer Revocate the Agitator, but everything else in between is solid intense death metal. Unfortunately, this would be the last excellent album by Deicide for around 15 years as the Hoffman brothers would drag the quality down repeatedly. It would only be when they were finally removed from the band that things would pick up somewhat.