Posts tagged He Is Legend
…breakdown in three quarters
0Current Tunage: Frodus – Out-Circuit The Ending
In the dust of the least design I will take to the sky

Pictured is Durn. Weilding “Jin’Rokh, The Great Apocalypse”. Now at rest.
3 / 4
One to go.
Commentary: It feels so good to be done. Third year was difficult – not necessarily in terms of the content studied. Difficult in every way but scholastically, and so academics were thus rendered difficult as well. I feel like I’ve been stretched every way possible, and yet I know this is just the tiny, visible peak of a monstrous iceberg.
This year is significant for many reasons, but few of them relate to school. This year marked the beginning of my first real relationship in ~4 years. Real, in this case, meaning “she is actually, in fact, interested and reciprocal; capable of making her mind up and being clear about it”. I apologize if the previous sentence comes off as bitter, as I’m not much bitter anymore, just glad to not be tired in the same way I was when that sort of thing bothered me (ie. right before meeting Steph). To add encouragement to healing, I found myself engaged shortly thereafter to someone I oft refer to as “Miss MyUniverse”, among many other things. I freely admit my human propensity towards bias and preference and subjectivity, but I honestly and holistically would submit my Fiancee as the best woman in all chronology, geography, and my unchanging opinion. Bar none. If you disagree, I will fight you and your ignorance (gently).
Consequential to these remarkable and unexpected developments, focusing on academics has often been the last thing on my mind this year – and my marks will likely show the proof. I do expect to pass everything (some by the skins of their teeth), for which I am thankful and admittedly quite surprised in a couple of cases. Papers and topics for them filled my head throughout the year, and I feel some of my best writing ever was done – and some of the most mediocre as well. I discovered I rather dislike open-ended English essays, and rather love open-ended Philosophy essays. I nurtured a growing passion for poetry (which hasn’t really manifested itself in much writing for my poetry blog as of yet, but I’m sure it will come. Finally, I took to calling myself a “Philosophy and English joint major” where before I had called myself an “English and Philosophy joint major”. The reasoning is simple: I get excited about Philosophy. Almost always. English Literature, (especially the historical, remembering names and junk stuff) not so much.
Without further ado:
Annual Thirty “Best” Things of 0708 school year:
[IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER]
01. Going with Al & Shane & Gord to Barrie to commit random high-jinks.
02. Doing 2v2 Arenas with my friend “Serida” in the Fall (August-November ’07).
03. Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii – a more ‘epic win’ could not be conceived.
04. Getting myself into a real, honest-to-goodness relationship with someone-awesome.
05. Getting engaged to that same someone-awesome.
06. Thursday nights studying Colossians here at the house with my TCF small group.
07. Playing Dustin Kensrue’s “Blanket of Ghosts” with Todd at TCF Coffee House in honour of Robert Jordan. RIP.
08. Five months of unemployment (which was, simultaneously among the worst things).
09. No classes on Thursdays.
10. Getting both of my characters in WoW to level 70.
11. Quitting World of Warcraft in December. Again. For good this time. (It’s even uninstalled.)
12. Regular weekends in Toronto visiting Steph and so many other friends.
13. Trips way up North (South Porcupine) for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Premarital Counselling Round 1.
14. Mondays hanging out with Todd, talkin’ life.
15. Early Modern Philosophy with M. Neumann, and, more importantly, T. Anderson.
16. Acquiring a second family. /wave
17. TCF Retreats Fall & Winter.
18. Our new boarder – my friend Shane!
19. Finding my old green toque. Wearing it.
20. Walking the pooch (Nuka) late at night during warmer months.
21. Dangerous prayers.
22. Installing Covenant Eyes. Reaping the benefits.
23. Opening a PC Financial account. So. Good.
24. Studying Metaphysics, Epistemology, and 20th Century Continental Philosophy.
25. Joining up as a staff writer for The Phantom Tollbooth.
26. Not getting Windows Vista, a Mac, an iPod, a metal water bottle, a blackberry, etc. XP really is better…
27. Playing Team Fortress 2 and DotA with my brothers, friends, and enemies.
28. Having a sweet, sweet beard. Getting rid of a sweet, sweet beard.
29. Renos on my room being finished after a decade in limbo.
30. Stephanie.
Sleep soundly in silence
Knowing that we will never return
To what we once were
What was now is a distant memory
I guess that I should thank you
For freeing me from my naivety
-Project 86 “Breakdown in 3/4″
Annual Ten Most Important “New-To-Me” Records of 0708 school year:
[IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER]
01. Sev & Dust – “Back To Dust”
02. Thrice – “The Alchemy Index”
03. Project 86 – “Rival Factions”
04. As Cities Burn – “Come Now Sleep”
05. Matthew Good – “Hospital Music”
06. He Is Legend – “Suck Out The Poison”
07. Dashboard Confessional – “The Shade Of Poison Trees”
08. Lovedrug – “Everything Starts Where It Ends”
09. August Burns Red – “Messengers”
10. Oh, Sleeper – “When I Am God”
This is the sound that drives you to deny
These are the words that remind you we’re alive
This is the voice that haunts you in your sleep
Outdated, forgotten, we’re yesterday’s obsolete
-Project 86 “Breakdown in 3/4″
And my general plan now… is to rest. And work my (posterior) off. And contribute more than my share of the wedding planning. And have phun with friends. And read books I want to. And write lots of music reviews. And blog posts. And and and… get married.
Yes.
…suck it out!
0
Title: Suck Out The Poison
Artist: He Is Legend
Label: Solid State Records
Length: 14 Tracks / 57:08
I admit it freely. I was a sucker for He Is Legend’s first two releases, 2004′s 91025 and I Am Hollywood. They were excellent, technical works of well-crafted rock/metal goodness meshed with unique lyrics which broke from the status quo in many quickly discernable ways. Fast, precise, and produced to a blinding sheen – there was and is very little to criticise about their prior records. I make no apologies.
Send a band on tour for 26 months straight and strange things are bound to happen. Perhaps your lead vocalist’s vocal chords will get shot. Maybe the band will begin to favor drop tuning two full steps down. Perhaps even you’ll discover that you don’t even like your own sound. It’s not a stretch to say that the road changes bands. In this case, I believe it’s been for the better – He Is Legend toured for twenty-six straight months on I Am Hollywood. Their newest record, Suck Out The Poison, is the result, in many senses, of that touring. Raw, weary, imbalancing… and yet driven by a renewed energy and passion.
Almost everything I loved musically about He Is Legend is gone on 2006′s Suck Out The Poison. Along with many of their listeners, I shared in the massive, collective “Huh!?” when I first listened through the album. It was unsettling. The meticulous pro-tools production of I Am Hollywood is gone and in its place is a grimy, dirty, darkly choral resonance more akin to a live recording than manicured studio tapings. The band has, from the beginning, stood behind Suck Out The Poison unapoligetically, so it seems to me that this paradigm shift in their approach to recording was very intentional. The technical excellence is still very present, it’s just taken a different form. Where I Am Hollywood brought us crisp but generally quite standard rock/metal, Suck Out The Poison brings us something more akin to Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster – dirty, grungy, heavy southern rock/metal. It’s a very different sounding monster, but I would argue it’s also a very *good* sounding monster.
One constant which has remained is the excellence of lyrics. He Is Legend’s vocalist Schuylar Croom has a gift for penning cleverly woven fairy tales out of the complexities of real, actual lives around him. References to the children’s fantasy stories of Western childhood abound but the content is warped and tailored to suit the trappings and pitfalls of Western adulthood. This juxtaposition is chilling at times, and particularly delightful at others. Ultimately, it allows He Is Legend to deal with some very complex issues and stories in the safety of what comes off as fictional fantasy. It’s all very intricate and well executed, and quite enjoyable to participate in.
The bottom line is this – He Is Legend, anything but content to stay put musically, has gone on an adventure with Suck Out The Poison. A very successful adventure. A quest, if you will, to create an album they love. An album which captures the bleeding-through of Western childhood fantasy and Western adulthood reality. Best of all, an album that sounds like a band that has hit their stride at top gear somewhere in the southern states amidst rattlesnakes, swamps, and big rigs patrolling the desert.
Suck Out The Poison is mythology, magic, and all kinds of clever.
Four venomous bites out of five.
Standout Tracks: Attack of the Dungeon Witch, Suck Out The Poison, China White II, Electronic Throat, (((louds.
Jerry Bolton 10/12/2007