Legion Of The Damned: Ravenous Plague – new album

Well here we are again, officially, in my fourth year of charity work. Therefore let us begin with these fine and fierce-looking Dutch gentlemen, LEGION OF THE DAMNED, (also known as “a reliable source of first-class thrash metal” to their label, Napalm Records) who are friendly with birds and whom this blog last met a long four years ago. Much has happened to LEGION OF THE DAMNED since that fateful video (‘The Hand Of Darkness’) caught my eye in 2010 and not all of it was pleasant; in 2011 the band lost for ever their original bassist Twan Fleuren to whom they dedicated the 2012 re-issue of LEGION OF THE DAMNED debut album ‘Malevolent Rapture’, the only album Twan Fleuren recorded with the band. ‘Ravenous Plague’, its release delayed many a time and finally available in Europe tomorrow, January the 3rd, 2014, and in North America from January the 7th on, introduces new guitarist Twan Van Geel and reintroduces producer Andy Classen, shows off with an intro by famous composer Jo Blankenburg (who wrote music for such blockbusters as “Harry Potter” and “X-Men”), and hits you with art created by Wes Benscoter. LEGION OF THE DAMNED's sixth full-length which “makes it more than clear that the evolution of the band is far from over” (according to Patrick Schmidt, Rock Hard Germany) awaits you here (Napalm Records' store), here (the band's store) and on iTunes, Amazon etc:

LEGION OF THE DAMNED was formed in Venlo (or thereabouts), Netherlands in 2004; singer Maurice Swinkels, drummer Erik Fleuren, bassist Twan Fleuren and guitarist Richard Ebisch recorded the band's debut album, ‘Malevolent Rapture’, in 2005 with producer Andy Classen and released it at the very beginning of 2006 through Massacre Records. In 2007, with Harold Gielen on bass, came LEGION OF THE DAMNED's second album ‘Sons Of The Jackal’, which entered the official German Albums Chart at number 54:

The band began the year 2008 with the re-recording of the final OCCULT (as they were known prior to Maurice Swinkels) album which was issued as “Feel The Blade” full-length in January 2008, and finished it off with ‘Cult Of The Dead’ in December 2008. All of the aforementioned albums were recorded with producer Andy Classen. In 2010, LEGION OF THE DAMNED turned to producer Peter Tägtgren (also of HYPOCRISY and PAIN) with their fifth effort, 2011's ‘Descent Into Chaos’, which Angry Metal Guy's Steel Druhm reviewed thusly:

“Basically, LOTD traffics in fast, SLAYER-friendly, riff driven songs with harsh barking, snarling vocals courtesy of Maurice Swinkels (sounds too much like sprinkles and there’s no sprinkles in thrash metal!). … The bitter and hateful vocals spewed by Swinkels (sounding a lot like Tom Angelripper of SODOM at times) really add an extra dimension of viciousness and put the LOTD sound over the top into the realm of thrashtastic. These Dutch boys have this style down cold and know how to write compelling and angry metal,” [more here]

LEGION OF THE DAMNED features: Maurice Swinkels – vocals, Twan van Geel – guitar, Harold Gielen – bass and Erik Fleuren - drums