Legion of the Damned
| Legion of the Damned | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 Legion of the Dead at the Ruhrpott Metal Meeting , 2016. |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Thrash metal , death metal |
| founding | 2004 |
| Website | http://www.legionofthedamned.net/ |
| Founding members | |
| Richard Ebisch (until 2011) | |
| Erik Fleuren | |
| Twan Fleuren (until 2006, † 2011) | |
| Maurice Swinkels | |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Maurice Swinkels |
Drums |
Erik Fleuren |
Electric bass |
Harold Gielen (since 2006) |
Electric guitar |
Twan van Geel (since 2011) |
Legion of the Damned is a Founded in 2004 death metal / thrash metal - band from the Netherlands . It emerged from the band Occult , founded in 1990 . The band is currently under contract with Napalm Records .
Band history
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Founding and Malevolent Rapture (2004 to 2006)
Legion of the Damned was founded in 2004 in the Netherlands from members of the band Occult. The renaming to Legion of the Damned was because the band has been rejected and ignored by fans and media since the departure of longtime Occult singer Rachel Heyzers. Even long after the separation from Rachel Heyzers, Maurice Swinkels was only considered "the new singer" and was never fully accepted. With the renaming, however, this changed suddenly.
In 2006, Legion of the Damned's debut album Malevolent Rapture was released, which was highly praised and also considered the “Best Newcomer” in the Death / Thrash Metal area of the year. The album was produced by Andy Classen and released on the Massacre Records label. The recordings for this album took place in 2005, back then under the band name Occult. Swinkels also attributes the success to the improved production compared to the Occult releases: "You can't compare the old OCCULT material and its productions with what we achieved with Andy Classen".
Several tours and festival appearances followed, including a tour with Destruction through the Netherlands and appearances at Summer Breeze and Wacken Open Air . In April 2006 bassist Twan Fleuren left the band, he was replaced by Harold Gielen.
Sons of the Jackal , Feel the Blade and Cult of the Dead (2007 to 2008)
On January 5, 2007, the second album Sons of the Jackal was released , which in turn was produced by Andy Classen . The album entered the German album charts at number 54. This year Legion of the Damned were on a European tour with Kreator and Celtic Frost, among others .
On January 4, 2008, the third studio album entitled Feel the Blade was released. This album is a remake of the last Occult album Elegy for the Weak . The limited edition also contains two new songs, a Pestilence cover and a bonus DVD . The band had decided on this re-release because, in their opinion, the album was not sufficiently supported by the record label during Occult times. With only around 2,000 units sold, the sales figures fell short of expectations at the time. Feel the Blade , however, was able to assert itself in the German album charts and reached number 70. In addition, Legion of the Damned was represented in the Austrian charts for the first time with this album; the album started here at number 64.
At the end of the same year, Cult of the Dead, the band's third regular album , was released on December 19, 2008 . This album was also produced by Andy Classen, the recordings took place in September 2008. A video for the song Cult of the Dead was previously released on December 15, 2008 . The album reached number 60 in the German charts. In Metal Hammer 01/2009 Cult of the Dead was named album of the month. The album was also clearly praised in Rock Hard : "As a Thrash fan you can hardly ignore" Cult Of The Dead "."
First DVD and Descent into Chaos (2010 to 2011)
The first live DVD was released on April 23, 2010. It was originally supposed to be called Slaughtering Party.San , as the main part of the show was planned for Party.San 2008. Because of problems with this performance, the band decided later, the shots from Summer Breeze 2009 and to use the name to Slaughtering ... to change. The recordings from Party.San 2008 and the Thrash Assault Festival 2008 make up the bonus material on the DVD, along with various background reports and previously published music videos.
On January 7th, 2011 the album Descent into Chaos was released . Unlike the previous albums, it was not recorded in Andy Classen's studio. The band opted instead for the Abyss studio by Peter Tägtgren . "Find out what another producer still everything can get out [...]" to addition to the normal version is Descent into Chaos - as the previous album - as a DVD digipak with alternative cover released. This version contains a re-recording of Legion of the Damned as a bonus track with Tägtgren as a guest singer.
In April 2011 guitarist Richard Ebisch suddenly announced that he would be leaving Legion of the Damned for health reasons. A replacement has not yet been found, but the band does not want to miss any of the upcoming performances. About three weeks after he left, Twan van Geel was named as his successor. Van Geel has been friends with Swinkels for years and was therefore the first choice. On May 21, 2011, the band announced that former bassist and friend Twan Fleuren had committed suicide.
style
Legion of the Damned play a mixture of fast thrash metal and death metal , whereby the thrash metal part predominates according to Maurice Swinkels. However, the song structures are kept simple and show little innovation. The band was therefore repeatedly compared to Bolt Thrower and in various reviews even referred to as the "Bolt Thrower of Thrash Metal". Swinkels:
"Our music gets stuck - it may sound the same, but how many bands out there manage to play so easily and still stay in people's minds?"
Swinkels mentions bands like Destruction , Sodom , Slayer and Kreator as stylistic influences . Richard Ebisch's guitar playing is also influenced by the early Pestilence works.
Legion of the Damned's pieces often have a dark, morbid atmosphere and deal with topics such as black magic ( Disturbing the Dead ), war ( Atomicide , Nuclear Torment ) and violence ( Feel the Blade ). In the lyrics there are often allusions to Christianity ( Cult of the Dead ) and Satanism ( Lucifer Savior ), which is particularly clear on Cult of the Dead . Even the album cover reflects this theme: It shows the beaten crucified Jesus of Nazareth , that of spiritually -clad zombies - the "Cult of the Dead" ( English for death cult is surrounded -). According to Swinkels, however, this album is not a concept album , but consists of independent pieces. With Black Wings of Yog-Sothoth , the Cthulhu myth is also addressed.
With the album Descent into Chaos the thematic focus is more on war, terror and violence and less on anti-Christian motifs. Some of the represented songs take up themes from previous albums, such as Repossessed , which refers to House of Possession from the previous album . There is also an allusion to the Cthulhu myth, namely in the piece Night of the Sabbath , which deals with the deity Shub-Niggurath. On this album the Death Metal parts were reduced a bit compared to the previous one, instead the Thrash Metal is more represented.
The lyrics are not written by the band members, but by Tony, a friend of the band. Swinkels sees nothing unusual in this, as this is practiced by many bands and anyway the music is in the foreground over the content. He has also known Tony since he was a child and grew up with him.
Band members
- Legion of the Damned live at Rockharz 2019
Singer Maurice Swinkels
Drummer Erik Fleuren
Bass player Harold Gielen
Guitarist Twan van Geel
Live guitarist Fabian Verweij
Discography
Albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
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| 2006 | Malevolent Rapture Massacre Records |
- | - | - |
First release: January 6th, 2006
Re-released 2012 with bonus DVD |
| 2007 | Sons of the Jackal Massacre Records |
DE54 (2 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: January 5, 2007
|
| 2008 | Feel the Blade Massacre Records |
DE70 (1 week) DE |
AT64 (2 weeks) AT |
- |
First published: January 4, 2008
|
| Cult of the Dead Massacre Records |
DE60 (3 weeks) DE |
- | - |
First published: December 19, 2008
|
|
| 2011 | Descent into Chaos Massacre Records |
DE27 (1 week) DE |
AT55 (1 week) AT |
- |
First published: January 7, 2011
|
| 2014 | Ravenous Plague Napalm Records |
DE21 (1 week) DE |
AT64 (1 week) AT |
CH83 (1 week) CH |
First published: January 3, 2014
|
| 2019 | Slaves of the Shadow Realm Napalm Records |
DE17 (2 weeks) DE |
AT46 (1 week) AT |
CH55 (1 week) CH |
First published: January 4th, 2019
|
Live albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
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| 2010 | Slaughtering ... Massacre Records |
DE68 (1 week) DE |
- | - |
First published: April 23, 2010
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Compilations
- 2009: Legion of the Damned (best of with videos, exclusively for visitors to the Full of Hate Tour 2009)
Music videos
- 2006: Bleed for Me
- 2006: Into the Eye of the Storm
- 2006: Scourging the Crowned King
- 2007: Sepulchral Ghoul
- 2008: Disturbing the Dead
- 2008: Cult of the Dead
Splits
- 2013: From Flood into Fire / Summon All Hate (with Kreator )
swell
- ↑ a b c metal1.info: Interview with Maurice Swinkels ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , February 2006
- ↑ a b c d Legion of the damned ( Memento of December 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ a b metalnews.de: Interview with Maurice Swinkels ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , December 2008
- ↑ metalnews.de: Legion Of The Damned - With a new bass player ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , News dated May 6, 2006
- ↑ a b c helldriver-magazine.com: Interview with Maurice Swinkels , 2007
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH
- ↑ metalnews.de: Legion Of The Damned - Video at the start ( Memento of the original from March 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , News dated December 15, 2008
- ↑ a b 01/09 Legion Of The Damned Album of the Month ( Memento from April 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ rockhard.de: Review of Cult of the Dead , January 2009
- ↑ metalnews.de: Interview with Maurice Swinkels ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , May 2, 2010
- ↑ metalnews.de: Review of Slaughtering… ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , April 21, 2010
- ↑ BLAST! - The Nuclear Blast magazine. Winter 2010/2011 edition, p. 41
- ↑ metalnews.de: Legion Of The Damned - guitarist gone ( Memento of the original from July 7th 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , April 21, 2011
- ↑ legionofthedamned.net: Welcome guitarist Twan van Geel ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ damned news ( memento of July 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on September 22, 2012.
- ↑ metal-hammer.de: Occult / Legion Of The Damned: ex-bassist commits suicide , accessed on May 25, 2011
- ↑ metalnews.de: Review of Sons of the Jackal ( Memento of the original from November 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , February 15, 2007
- ↑ a b c metalnews.de Interview with Maurice Swinkels ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , February 2007
- ↑ ancientspirit.de: Interview with Maurice Swinkels ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 2007
- ↑ metalnews.de: Interview with Maurice Swinkels ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , December 2010
- ↑ a b metal1.info: Interview with Maurice Swinkels ( Memento of the original from November 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 2011
- ↑ leviatan-magazine.com: Interview with Maurice Swinkels ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , September 2008
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Official MySpace page (English)
- Chart sources: DE / AT / CH