Lots of melodies without being sissy

THE LEGION neither want to repeat themselves, nor would they lose any brutality and intensity. With their third album "A Bliss To Suffer" the Swedes meet this high standard without any ifs and buts and move on, leaving behind blasting away from alpha to omega and opening up to further tearing down boundaries.

"On a scale from 1 to 10 I'd say 11 right away", states Drummer Emil enthusiastically. "No doubt about it. We have worked really hard with it and put many hours into it, so I'd be just weird not telling you that we are damn proud of the album. We haven't really got that much of a response yet except for some zines and folks that we have contact with, but all in all people seem to think it couldn't get any better and that our development from the last album "Revocation" is in the right direction." And guitarist Rikard Kottelin - also being very satisfied with "A Bliss To Suffer" - elaborates on the differences between "A Bliss To Suffer" and its predecessor "Revocation". "I would say that the primary difference between the two records is its dynamics. We were all pretty satisfied with the result after the "Revocation" session, thinking we had recorded a versatile and multifaceted creation, and it was, compared to "Unseen To Creation". Haha, I listened to "Revocation" the other day and it's not very dynamic at all!! It blasts away in full speed from alpha to omega, and we didn't want to do yet another album like that. Not that we don't like it, the album is great, but we just wanted to do something different. Expand our boundaries. The result is an album that offers everything from black and death metal to more heavy parts with some bits of classical influences."

Meanwhile, the creational process has been the same as always. THE LEGION compose with the guitar, including the orchestral arrangements. Originally written for the guitar these are then transcribed into the final orchestral and choir arrangements. "This is where "A Bliss To Suffer" differs itself from the earlier productions. We've put a lot more time and effort into these orchestral arrangements and this goes for the vocal department as well. For once we could afford to take all the time we needed to record the vocals. For our previous recordings this was something we did in just a couple of days. Also, this time we took the opportunity to experiment with some other kinds of vocals beside the usual black metal screams." Whereas Emil sees the personal major difference in his contributing to the song writing. "I did a whole lot for "Revocation", too, but for "A Bliss To Suffer" I'd say that it's way more than ever before. Of course, some of my ideas started off as sketches, then David and Rikard would dissect them into more 'guitarist friendly' riffs. Some were kept in their original form and some were executed into nothingness. The main reason why I wrote lots of materials is 'cause of an ambition to grow as a musician, and a state that I was in which in turn made a lot of creativity flow out of me. The others in the band got pretty tired of me showing up at rehearsals with new songs all the time, but in the end we got to make an outstanding album and we hope that readers can agree with us on that one!"

A big plus for THE LEGION is the return of Lazr Martinsson into the fold who concentrates on vocals and lyrics now. Guitarist David Svartz who never loses touch with Lazr sees this as a happenstance as it redundantizes the tiring quest for a new vocalist . "We hang out on a regular basis, even though he lives in Gothenburg these days, some 150 km away. When we started working on the lyrics on our own I pretty soon realized something was missing. So I asked Lazr if he wanted to give a helping hand and he was all in on taking on the role of a sort of ghostwriter. When he came down to the studio to lay down some demo takes of his lyrics I immediately realized how well his vocals fit our music. Some time later I called him up and asked if he wanted to do the whole thing and he was all in instantly. I'm very satisfied with that. Working with Lazr has worked out very well and I'm glad to have him back in the band. Without his participation we probably would've spent even more time writing and recording and wouldn't have ended up with such well-arranged and interesting lyrics." This statement certainly hits the mark as THE LEGION are able to express themselves atmospherically yet direct without getting lost in stereotypes.

Lazr rightly perceives this as a compliment and willingly gives us a deeper insight into his opinion on the role of lyrics. Still, he turns out to be hesitant regarding the lyrical contents. "There are only a few bands whose lyrics I find more important than the music (it's actually hard to come up with one single example), and the same goes for my relationship with THE LEGION. I put a lot of effort in the lyrics and I honestly think some of them say a great deal both of myself and of the perspective I have on my own and the lives of other people. However, I don't claim them to be as well worked out or as rewarding as the music. I hope our fans enjoy us because of our songs and not because of my lyrics, if not, I would like to take them by the hand and show them the library!

However, reading my lyrics should deepen the experience of the music conveys. I read a comment on the net the other day where some guy remarked our lyrics 'gel' better with the music than most in the scene. That's flattering, and that's the way it's supposed to work. We want the lyrics to reflect the over-worldly experience of the music, and there's a sort of unspoken formula for what those lyrics may contain. They may appear to deal with only the random metal bullshit but I would suggest there's really a red thread running around in pretty spectacular formations in there. You could never 'translate' a riff into a series of words but if you summarize the experience of the THE LEGION sound as well as the themes of my lyrics, they would correspond. The lyrics range from the most absurd fantasies to wholly experienced, true events - which is probably impossible to decipher, and I wouldn't want to dig much in it either. Some are merely form, others are 'message' or 'story'; the point is however to grant the music a complement in pictures for the mind to work out itself. I don't want to ruin the experience with too much explanation, and that is not because I don't know what I'm talking about but because the lyrics are simply better if there is a veil of mystery shrouding their meaning."

Musically THE LEGION place emphasis on midtempo parts, orchestral arrangements, atmospheric interludes and even choirs more than ever before, stating to take the music to new heights, giving it a new level of impact. This could result in a higher impact level than it could've been with a plain and high speed black metal release. But one could also see it as plainly different. "It sure would differ a lot", agrees Emil. "I was actually joking about it the other day that we would do two versions of this album, one with the production that it has now and one that is really dirty and old school, kind of Darkthrone-production without keyboards or editing, just one take all in all! No one else thought it was a good idea though..." What a surprise! Once you evolve would you play around with stepping back? Probably not.

These changes were a natural development and not a deliberate decision when firing the starting shot for the work on "A Bliss To Suffer" as Emil confirms. "We had it pretty much coming all natural which is the usual way in this band. For example when we were doing the drum sound check, I didn't have to say a word to Rikard. He knew right from the start what kind of sound I want. He just pressed his buttons here and there on the mixing table and then looked at me and I nodded. That's how simple it goes! Same thing for the development - we hardly have to discuss in which way the music should go. Otherwise it would mean that we do music just to please others and that is not how we work. We do music to please ourselves. This is our art work and we paint it with our uncompromised musicianship."