DARK LEGION is a Greek heavy metal band founded in Volos, Greece by Spiros Rizos. "God of Harvest" is their debut album and is released by Elevate Records.

DARK LEGION incorporate Power Metal, classical composition and Hard Rock into their sound and on first listen, I didn't particularly like it. Maybe I listened to it with other background noise cause in the comfort of my own home, some decent time to listen to it and a decent pair of earphones clearly made all the difference cause actually it's quite good. Good job I don't judge an album on first listen eh!

It starts in suitably Power Metal territory with the opening track "The Dragon's Saga" galloping on a strong metal rhythm. The production is good and clear and the vocalist is decent though didn't blow me away. It may be the Greek intonation which I found difficult to make out at times but it generally works well. There's a nice keyboard/lead guitar breakdown mid-way through the track before returning to the galloping rhythm. A good start.

"God of Harvest" brings the Greek culture to the lyrics with a song about Gaia (Greek goddess of Earth) and the Titan Chronos. It's a great song with a strong punchy riff in the verse and a strong chorus. A nice melodic riff is joined by searing lead guitar which adds another dynamic to the song.

"Fear to Lose" is the first ballad on the album and at nearly 6 minutes is one of the longest tracks on the album. It begins with a strong melodic riff which is joined by a lead guitar which compliments the rhythm well. There's a barely audible keyboard sound which may as well not be there and slightly detracts from the track. Also because this is a slow track, the imperfection in Walter's voice is more noticeable and his vocals seemed a bit off to me. A cool eastern tinge is added about two-thirds through then an emotional lead guitar builds to a more speed metal approach.

"Inner Fire" opens with a heavy melodic riff but loses points with it's fairly cringy lyrics like

"Inner fire burns in my heart - fills my veins with magic..."
A similar criticism with "1000 Miles". It starts promising enough with a soaring lead guitar intro and a pleasant keyboard but with lyrics like

"A river over towns, over cities and the temple is always there.
Our melodies look pretty and we sail with the wind in our hair"

I'm cringing as I type this and the slow dirge chorus added to my discomfort. The spoken vocals are a bit jarring towards the end though the lead guitar towards the end is the song's saving grace.

One of my favourite tracks however is the Hard Rock swagger of "The Girl who Loves Me" which has some nice squealing guitar over some punchy drums and some great lead runs over a groove rhythm. I can actually forgive the lyrics like

"I sense the dance to the rhythm of love  - I wanna hold you all night long.
I want to kiss you until we'll be one - I want to be with you."

DARK LEGION have produced a decent debut album and the band certainly shows promise. The lead guitar compliments the rhythm very well, there are some good arrangements, the musicianship is good and the production is clear. However, some of the vocals did detract from the overall sound and certainly some of the lyrics were a bit too wincing for me.

Overall though, a good effort.