LEGACY

Legacy ? 2001 (3/5) 10 ? Best Song: Cliffhanger 2 Egh! You'd think the band would learn the lessons they garnered from Tyranny and apply them to their future work, but I suppose some bands learn lessons and others go from day to day, hopping in and out of well-served reasoning at the blink of an eye. It's really crazy. I was listening to 'Cliffhanger 2' and as soon as I typed blink of an eye, he sang it. Weird. Maybe that psychological prick who rambled on about synchronicity wasn't a crackpot. That or this was merely a coincidence, but I want you to donate to me for theological research. Send in your offers and we'll solve this, together ? you, me, and my new Ferrari. Oh, Legacy is the band's fourth album. It takes the clean, heavy approach they started on Tyranny and meshes it with the cheese and listless unimportance of their first two records. What you get is an inbetween album. The singing is good, the few times they DO let the guitarist have a little room to play, he's great (Rush comes to mind), but there's an air of rote predictability in each of the songs ? a staleness, if you will. Well, the song goes quiet, so of COURSE they're gonna 'abruptly' swing in with a complex jam. It's the LAW. And that jam is required to droll on for nearly 14 minutes. 'Destination Unknown' sounds familiar, like a lost Carved in Stone tune. The band have a lot of ability, that much is true, but sometimes, though, I honestly wish the guys would pack a real, exciting punch in their albums, one that isn't lost on such cheap balladry and predictable formula-hounding that bands have been overabusing since 1980.