LEGEND PART II

Legend Part II is the 4th full-length studio album by American progressive/ dark metal act Saviour Machine. It´s the second ( as the title says) album in the Legend series which lyrically is based on The Book of the Revelation of John. A dark concept well suited for dark music.

The music on Legend Part II is unmistakably the sound of Saviour Machine. The commanding and emotional operatic baritone vocals of Eric Clayton are as always the center of attention, while the basic instrumentation of guitar, bass, drums and keyboards are boasted by extensive use of both choirs and orchestration to create a grand epic sound. This is the band´s most epic and symphonic effort. Saviour Machine is not your usual progressive metal act by any means. You´ll find no impossible to play solos, technical playing or other progressive metal clichés on Legend Part II and Eric Clayton isn´t your usual high pitched metal singer either. The man posseses one of the most unique voices in the progressive metal genre and is actually closer in the sound to David Bowie or Andrew Eldritch than he is to James Labrie or Ray Alder. The music is mostly slow to mid-paced and contains layers upon layers of instruments and overdubbed vocals. A very hard soundscape to penetrate and appreciate when initially listening to the album.

The music can be dark and gloomy with Eric Clayton reciting bible passages but also grand and epic with Eric Clayton singing in his tortured emotional style. The music can seem repetitive and the songs too much alike and I have to admit that I find this a very hard album to get through even though it´s quite fantastic when I´m in the mood. 79:25 minutes of music is very long for an album and maybe a bit too long in this case, but on the other hand I greatly appreciate songs like The Whore of Babylon, Behold A Pale Horse ( which is the most accessible song on an otherwise extremely inaccessible album) and the 10:35 minute long The Promise. This is of course one long concept and all songs seque into each other to form one long epic story. One thing is for sure. Legend Part II is the kind of album that takes much patience to appreciate. I´ve listened to this album for a couple of years now and I still only feel like I´ve scraped the surface. All those layers of incredibly well composed music just leaves me breathless and exhausted every time.

The production is professional and suits the music well. Personally I would have preferred if the guitars were a bit louder in the mix because sometimes they drown in the many layers of keyboards, choirs and orchestration.

Legend Part II is an excellent album by Saviour Machine which grows on me every time I listen to it, but for newcommers to the band this might be a pill too big to swallow and I would strongly recommend starting with the self-titled debut full-length album if you´re interested in a dark and unique take on progressive metal. Legend Part II gets a 4 star rating from me.