Album Type: Full length
Date Released: 27/6/2014
Label: Setalight Records
'Dot Legacy' track listing:
1. Kennedy
2. Think Of A Name
3. Days Of The Weak
4. The Passage
5. Pyramid
6. Gorilla Train Station
7. Rumbera
8. The Midnight Weirdos
9. 3am - Dot Legacy
The band:
Damien Quintard - lead vocals, bass guitar
Arnaud Merckling - guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
John Defontaine - guitars, backing vocals
Romain Mottier - drums, backing vocals
Review:
Two things entered my mind the first time I listened to Dot Legacy's self-titled debut: "holy shit, this amazing!" and "this is the most twisted, insane stuff I've heard in a long time!". Those two statements are still valid after spin #23 and these French knuckleheads never cease to amaze me. As a music reviewer you want to pigeonhole bands, put them in boxes from where they aren't allowed to leave. Dot Legacy shatters that notion from the word go. Of course I hear a bunch of their influences but those bits are short, sharp and to the point, meaning there is no way to categorize them and that's fantastic! More bands should take inspiration of their anything-goes attitude because, as a listener you would be exposed unshackled, unrestrained and honest music. Music that has no desire to please in order to sell a few extra copies of an album. No, Dot Legacy put every single idea they have in a blender, stir it up and simply play whatever comes out. And most importantly, they seem to have a shitload of fun doing this!
Starting off like an indie pop tune 'Kennedy' quickly turns into a psych-trip akin to heavy post metal before melting my brain...and this is only 2:20 minutes into the song. Awesomely schizophrenic you hear! Full of attitude 'Think Of A Name' is fuzzed out with a heavy punkish bass guitar leading the way amidst some nice guitar solos. Slow, knuckledragging and sludgy 'Days Of The Weak' goes minimalistic and etheral about halfway through only to pick up pace towards the end. 'The Passage' is a trippy and other-wordly with a solitary guitar playing against a backdrop of noise and sampled voices it leads into the quirky 'Pyramid'. Stoned out and trippy as well funky with a dollop of shouting thrown in for good measure, this one is a heavy stoner riff-fest in between everything else. Dot Legacy are definitely excelling here.
'Gorilla Train Station' continues where 'Pyramid' left off but is more of stoner tune through and through with a spaced out mid-section. 70's infused heavy-ass spacerock is what greets us in 'Rumbera', well for a little bit at least until the band slow things down slightly while pounding the listener into the ground...only to go back to the trippy spacerock that started the song. All within about 4 minutes of time! 'The Midnight Weirdos' starts out in space somewhere, slow and drifting while slowly building up to a thunderous crescendo almost halfway through. A slower brief interlude follows before a very nice solo leads into bulldozing mode as Dot Legacy throws down the gauntlet. Ending with '3am - Dot Legacy' the band takes a very sharp left turn. Acoustic and full of vocal harmonies this one is definitely the odd one out on the album. Still as well played as it is and, more importantly, keeping with the band's refusal to stay within genre boundaries, the song really belongs on this wax.
I have to say 'Dot Legacy' is a very, very good album, nay amazing album! In all honesty, it could have been a horrible release since the band throw so many styles and influences into the fray. However, the guys are top notch musicians and song writers, so they easily side-stepped any trappings this unholy amalgamation could have brought. And the end result? Fluent, free-form, fantastic music that deserves much wider recognition. Ignore this at your peril because Dot Legacy will reinforce your belief in heavy music again!
Words by: Håkan Nyman
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