For as long as the Legions of Metal festival has been a thing, I’ve been there. Matter of fact, I had weekend tickets to the last edition of its predecessor, Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse, but ended up giving them to a friend because I was deadly ill with the flu. Just my luck that I’d come down with such a sickness in time for an exclusive US appearance from Tygers of Pan Tang, but I digress. Legions has been largely responsible for me seeing bands I’d likely never see anywhere else. Among these bands: Liege Lord, TKO, Brocas Helm, Killer (Belgium), and cult metal gods, Cirith Ungol, just to name a few.
In an ideal world, I’d be counting down the months, weeks, and days to Legions of Metal 5. Instead, I’m writing my thoughts on Legions of Metal 3.5: a mini one day edition of the festival that occurred this past weekend. It was a new concept that I welcomed with open arms. I’ll take a smaller Legions over no Legions at all! Not to mention, making us wait until May of next year for the full edition would’ve been too cruel. The premise remained the same. Legions stays true to their mission of spotlighting the legends of traditional metal past, as well as the torchbearers of the future. It just so happened that this lineup was their most diverse yet. From thrash and doom, to power and metalpunk, practically no stone was left unturned. The following are my takes on the bands I managed to see, as well as some photos for those who weren’t lucky enough to attend this headbanger’s heaven.
Lavaborne
The evening began at the Joint, the smaller of two stages at Chicago’s Reggies. Indiana power doom outfit Lavaborne kicked things off in vigorous fashion. How heavy? Let’s just say the stage almost collapsed underneath the sheer weight of riffage. Add to that the bellowing vocals of frontman Chris Latta, decked out in Messiah Marcolin cassock and all, and you’ve got a tremoring trifecta. The band made the likes of late legends Mark “The Shark” Shelton and Ronnie James Dio proud as they blazed through a set drawing heavily from their latest critically acclaimed album, Black Winged Gods, a collection of songs molded heavily by the inspiration of their respective bands (Manilla Road and Black Sabbath respectively). If Lavaborne regularly opened doom shows up here, I’d probably go to doom shows more often! Their set was a powerful, epic, and heavy start to the festivities.
Attack of the Rising
Come 5:30, the Rock Club was alive and kicking with one of my favorite BRAND new discoveries, Attack of the Rising. Just like I observed in my review of their new album, Game Changer, these are old school dudes playing old school metal and having a fun time doing so. The same can be said for their live performances. No frills, no gimmicks, no nonsense. Just metal! That said, I can’t stress enough the pipes on lead singer Kleber Mandrake. This dude can belt it out! It was nice to witness him up close and personal before he gets snatched up by Frontiers Records for any number of supergroups and curated projects. Mark my words, he’ll be doing duets with Jeff Scott Soto in no time.
Vexing Hex
“Vexing Hex”: Say that five times fast! Up until this event, I had never heard of nor listened to them. Now I can’t get enough. Their stage presence was impressive on its own. The band wore matching uniforms of black robes, ritualistic crowns, and ghoulish corpsepaint. For such a presentation, you’d expect them to play black metal. Instead, they specialize in the same 70s occult metal à la Secret Treaties era Blue Öyster Cult as Ghost once did before setting their sights on the AOR/pop rock money train. I’d even go as far to argue Vexing Hex executes these BÖC-isms better than Ghost ever did. Check them out and let me know if you think the same!
Olórin
Lavaborne wasn’t the only band holding down the doom metal fort. So were Olórin, a Lord of the Rings worship band hailing from middle of nowhere Illinois. All kidding aside, I’m glad I didn’t have to wait nearly as long to hear songs off their latest album, Through Shadow and Flame, as I did for the songs themselves. Whereas Lavaborne comes off as a power metal band with doom riffs, Olórin is a full fledged doom band. The orthodox metal crowd took to them rather well, so much so that their set was the most packed I saw the Music Joint get all night. Moral of the story: If you’re gonna do doom, go epic or go home!
The Lurking Corpses
I’ve been a fan of The Lurking Corpses for roughly a decade now. They used to play shows at the now closed Red Line Tap all the time. And then they just kind of disappeared. They never officially broke up, but as the years went by, they became less a name I’d see on show posters and more a name I’d see pop up in my Spotify mixes, thinking to myself, “Geez, I remember these guys.”, and, “It would’ve been nice if they had done an all ages show, considering I was 12 and Red Line was strictly 21+.” Fast forward a decade later and I finally got my chance. The Lurking Corpses play what can only be described as Misfits gone death/thrash. Arguably the most extreme band to play the festival yet, their set was beautifully sloppy in every way you’d want a metalpunk band to be. Closing out with a cover of Grim Reaper’s “See You in Hell” was a wise choice as the entire crowd sang along.
Forcefield
Of all the bands on the lineup, Forcefield is the only one I probably wouldn’t listen to in my spare time. That said, I appreciate events like Legions for encouraging me to expand my horizons and explore new things. Forcefield’s self admitted brand of “nerdy Star Trek” power metal draws heavily from the likes of Helloween, Iced Earth, and Blind Guardian. In other words, the usual suspects. They also have some Agent Steel inspired thrash aggression, doom laden breakdowns, and the slightest hint of prog going on. They’d be right at home on the ProgPower lineup alongside *euro band here* and *other euro band here*.
Destructor
Destructor have been thrashing and thrashing only for close to 40 years. That’s right folks. Unlike 99.9% of their peers, Destructor never kissed up to grunge, alternative rock, or nu metal. No, come the 90s they did the dignified thing: They broke up! Founding members Dave Overkill and Matt Flammable reformed the band in 1999 and have been “Pounding Evil” ever since. This set was no exception. Their combination of industrial strength aggression and pummeling power was the shot of adrenaline everyone needed to keep going the rest of the night.
High Spirits
By the time hometown heroes High Spirits took the stage, the Rock Club was packed with a couple hundred headbangers, air guitars and singing voices in tow. It’s nothing short of criminal that this band isn’t a household name. Their hooky as hell blend of metal, hard rock, and AOR should make frontman/mastermind Chris Black a multimillionaire. These songs are strong enough on their own, but when Chris and the gang bring them to life, they become arena rock monsters, the likes of which have not been seen or heard since KISS’s Alive II. High Spirits can play the tiniest room around and effortlessly turn it into the biggest stadium. That’s beyond talent. That’s magic.
Setlist
- “When the Lights Go Down”
- “Restless”
- “Full Power”
- “I Need to Know”
- “Voice in the Wind”
- “Another Night in the City”
- “I Need Your Love”
- “Flying High”
- “Torture”
- “High Spirits”
- “Don’t Look Down”
Raven
Closing it all out was none other than NWOBHM legends, Raven. Don’t let their age fool you. Even though its been 40 years since brothers Mark and John Gallagher dropped their debut album, Rock Until You Drop, the two can still crash, bang, and wallop like no other. The crowd partook in their fair share of action as well. What ensued was a 90 minute melee of moshing, headbanging, and fist pumping galore. Between the band and the audience, there was probably enough electricity to power a small village and then some, but that’s what you get at a Raven show. These dudes are not and never will be for the faint of heart. This is high power, high speed metal for only the maddest of maniacs! Even the new cuts they incorporated into the set reflect this unrelenting spirit, standing toe to toe with the finest moments in their catalog. By the end of the night, we were all “Wiped Out”.
Setlist
- “Take Control”
- “Hell Patrol”
- “Mind Over Metal”
- “The Power”
- “Top of the Mountain”
- “Rock Until you Drop”
- “Faster than the Speed of Light”
- “Tyrants of the Airways”
- “Metal City”
- “Extract the Action”
- “On and On”
- “Break the Chain”
- “Rock Bottom” (UFO cover) / “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)” (AC/DC cover)
- “Chainsaw”
- “Wiped Out”