Fight or Fall
Review Score: 8.5
Reviewed by: Billy Klare
Night Legion are back with their Sophomore release titled “Fight or Fall” due out June 30, 2023 on Massacre Records. The Night Legion website describes their sound as “Razor sharp power metal to make your ears bleed – In the best possible way”. Pretty accurate but I also hear plenty of traditional heavy metal components as well. There are two new band members since the first album back in 2017 with the incredibly capable Louie Gorgievski on vocals and Col Higginson on guitar. The album contains 9 tracks clocking in just under forty minutes in length.
New vocalist Louie shines throughout the entire album with a beautiful soaring melodic voice in the style of a Bruce Dickinson, Tim Owens or even Michael Kiske at times, but still fully retains his own originality (he notes Bruce Dickinson as his favorite singer / primary influence). It appears he’s only done guest album contributions or singing on other artist solo albums but he definitely deserves to fully front a band in my opinion. His melodic and powerful vocals are a perfect match for Night Legion and their underlying song writing approach.
Guitarists Stu Marshall and Col Higginson are successful delivering plenty of hook laden riffs that form the base of each song but the solo work especially stands out. The solos are often very emotive with plenty of feeling vs. just playing super fast like the standard power metal formula (but don’t get me wrong, Stu can absolutely shred!). Glenn Williams bass is well positioned in the mix, he contributes a number of interesting bass lines that come to the forefront of many tracks. Clay T provides the thundering drumming driving the overall pace of each track. Unlike many power metal bands, Night Legion doesn’t rely keyboards.
The songwriting is very memorable with plenty of melodic anthem driven choruses that will surely have you singing along & raising your fists in the air. The songs successfully slow down at the right moment with dramatic interludes that make the faster components far more impactful. Many of the tracks border on traditional heavy metal and power metal to my ears with a few surprises along the way. The only minor critique I would note is the overall construction of the combined songs is not overly original or ground breaking but Night Legion are very effective operating in their lane.
The album is bookended by the two longest songs both exceeding the five minute mark. The opening track is the epic “The Hounds of Baskerville’ that takes the listener on a multi-paced journey led by a super addictive chorus, powerful vocals and shredding guitar work (also the common thread applying to most of the album tracks). Songs like “Babylon Burns”, “Soaring into the Black”, “Harvest of Sin” and the title track “Fight or Fall” show the entire band firing on all cylinders in full galloping power metal mode – I love these tracks! Next is “At World’s End” with one of the most addictive chorus melodies I’ve heard in a while, talk about an ear worm you won’t soon forget. The closing song “The Hand of Death” was a pleasant surprise with the guys slowing things down showing more of a gritty / heavy side almost bordering on Doom Metal at times.
Forget all the fancy sub-genre descriptions applying to heavy metal, “Fight or Fall” is simply heavy metal done right. The album is enjoyable on first listen and gets better with additional plays as the musical hooks sink in. All traditional metal and power metal fans should dig this new material. Check out the two singles already available for “The Hounds of Baskerville” & “Soaring into Black”, both are representative of what to expect on the full album. Production is clean and top notch further adding to the overall quality of this release. Highly recommended, I plan to get a copy for my personal collection.
Track Listing
- The Hounds of Baskerville
- Babylon Burns
- Soaring into the Black
- Fight or Fall
- At World’s End
- Beyond the Crimson Dawn
- Harvest of Sin
- The Enemy
- The Hand of Death
Line-Up
Louie Gorgievski – Vocals
Stu Marshall – Lead Guitar
Col Higginson – Guitar
Glenn Williams – Bass Guitar
Clay T – Drums