Legio Mortis Germany

"I think that a lot of people would argue that this is not even black metal. There are a number of black metal elements here, to be sure, but they are blended in with elements from other genres. In all fairness, Legio Mortis market themselves as playing dark/black metal rather than claiming to be all out black metal on this album.

Anyway, there are farious blastbeats and sinple, often atmospheric riffage, which are typical of much black metal - you can hear this in tracks like "Unholy Four", "Avenger of the Oppressed Souls", "Blood Fantasy", and "Thorn in my Eye". But the band also draw extensively on other genres like thrash metal, classic metal, gothic/doom metal and even molodeath (as in the title track). It sounds like Paradise lost has been an especially big influence on this album, and it is probably not a coincidence that Legio Mortis have included a cover version of "Pity the Sadness" pn this album.

Melody pervades this album, but that need not be a weakness - and Legio Mortis make very good use of melody, I think. My beef with this album is the vocals, which combines an angry snarl with a deep guttural growl. For some reason, this conbination does not do it for me, at tends to really get on my nerves, which spoils the listening experience a bit.

That is a bit of a shame, because "The Human Creation and the Devil's Contribution" is not a bad album at all. There is plenty of variation in the music and there are even some elements that border on the avant-garde. So, it is certainly worth checking out.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"