Exclusive Premiere: He Is Legend Through The “Never”
Imagine a future in which each metal band shrinks their participation in media coverage to pre-internet levels. For artists, that would mean fewer interviews and less repeating, fewer contextualizations and less convincing. It would impact the creation process, for reduced would be the invisible “chilling effect” felt by bands who may semi-consciously avoid creating music that can’t be easily explained. Readers, too, would encounter less overlap; that means less frustration from hearing about an annoying band again and again, and less fatigue for their omnipresent favorites.
And in that future of greater competition for fewer stories, each reporter might need more energy and attention to land exclusives and sniff out new developments. So maybe our focus would be necessarily smaller but appear in higher resolution, so to speak. And there, finally, is my point: Even in that future, He Is Legend is a top priority. If MetalSucks were able to cover only ten bands, we’d wage war to ensure that He Is Legend is one of them. But why?
Because a band like He Is Legend represents the media’s purest purpose: To inform the largest number of people about that which we know in our bones will contribute to real happiness. Like Faith No More and the Deftones, Tool and glory-era Metallica, HIL is both elemental and innovative, simultaneously familiar and singular, simple and sophisticated. None of them fits neatly in a genre — though their friends do, thus providing an easy context — and their imitators never get it just right, such is even their respect. Like the seat belt or those really long lighters, they seem both brilliant and obvious. Unified by a perspective, their output is trustworthy; sure, it’s not perfect, but its missteps fit into and shape the band’s narrative. There’s no tail-chasing, and their art changes as its creators do. The barriers between their selves and their truest message have been blasted to bits; the ego they obey is their drive to be awesome at being the people that they are, not becoming the people who have the best chance at acceptance. That is, their needs are many, but placating us is not one of them. Instead of pleasing us, they seek to confront us. They say, This is us. Are you for or against?
To unlock this honesty is the key to self-expression; that self-expression in turn is the key to the authenticity that each of us — especially relentless MetalSucks readers — can detect even when we’re unsure of how. This is He Is Legend, dear readers. Sounding like no one else yet resemblant of everything good that you know, imitable and distinct and formidably constructed, their music is masterful for they are fueled by the confidence of identity. They are them and no one else and we don’t get a vote in the matter. They’ve been away since 2009’s classic It Hates You, but after a break and two years of shows, they are set to unveil Heavy Fruit, their fourth album, on August 19. It is our pleasure and our destiny to present to you its third jam, “This Will Never Work.” Welcome to the future.
He Is Legend’s first album in five years, Heavy Fruit, is out August 19 via Tragic Hero. Pre-order here. Tour dates here.
