Burn the Priest - Legion: XX

So after 19 years of silence since their self-titled debut in 1999, Burn the Priest from Richmond motherfucking Virginia comes back with fucking covers album?!?! And of a bunch of hardcore punk songs that sound like they’re trying to be Lamb of God. It’s fucking bullshit. And Lamb of God is way better. They’re probably just jealous because Lamb of God is also from Richmond and they made it big, while Burn the Priest can’t seem to get an album together.
I’m obviously kidding, of course.
Burn the Priest was the original name under which Lamb of God formed before changing to their much more widely known name. While Lamb of God are known as modern groove metal titans (and for damn good reason) for leading the new wave of American heavy metal in the 2000’s with albums like Sacrament, Ashes of the Wake, Wrath, and As the Palaces Burn, their debut under the Burn the Priest name was a bit more chaotic and somewhat quicker-paced, semi-lo-fi death metal with some grindcore influence behind it, which leaked a little bit into their first album as Lamb of God, New American Gospel.
Lamb of God have resurrected their old name more out of tribute than out of a return to the style they played while operating under it in 1999, and they’re paying tribute not so much to their old work but to the work of artists who inspired the formation of Burn the Priest. Legion: XX isn’t really intended to bring back the band’s early sound, but to give the band their take on styles not quite so close to what they’ve cultivated under the Lamb of God name.
Randy Blythe is still one of metal’s more distinct and influential gruff vocalists, but on Burn the Priest, while he was still trying to find his style (and probably impress), he was employing so many different types of screams and growls to the point of it being almost freakish, which reasonably doesn’t show up again on Legion: XX.
Largely from the hardcore punk and industrial metal scenes, the bands Burn the Priest cover here might not be go-to for a lot of Lamb of God fans more invested in metal than in punk, but Burn the Priest sell the crossover high points of the styles well with a fair amount of attitude to flatter the genre.
Mostly bringing a bit of metallic heaviness and metal-style production to these songs without rearranging them all too much in order to preserve their hardcore origins, Legion: XX is certainly true to its intent of paying tribute to these songs rather than making some flashy spectacle of them by covering them in wildly different fashion. It’s that kind of covers album that actually does focus more on the purpose of the original songs than just reformatting them to some formula (I’m just still not over Five Finger Death Punch’s awful cover of “Gone Away”).
As for my favorites, the band’s cover of Big Black’s “Kerosene” (one of the more melodic tracks on the album) is probably up at the top, the rumbly industrial metal-stlye bass lining the song is a nice metallic addition, and Randy’s vocals fit over it fantastically. Their cover of Agnostic Front’s “One Voice” is also pretty solid and it sounds pretty at home on a Lamb of God project.
The speedy covers of “Inherit the Earth”, “Kill Yourself”, and the more spoken-word-y “Axis Rot” work pretty well too. Their sinister metallic take on Melvins’ “Honey Bucket” goes over pretty well too and is probably the most like Lamb of God they sound on this album.
One of the other more melodic tracks on the album, the cover of Quicksand’s “Dine Alone” is another unlikely success for the band, and they pull off Bad Brain’s “I Against I” only sounding a little out of place.
I was expecting a little more from their Cro-Mags cover at the end of the album, as well as their cover of “Jesus Built My Hotrod”, but they stay very true to the originals and work as fine tributes.
All in all, it’s a pretty appreciable venture for the band. They clearly have both an appreciation for and competence in the styles they’re playing on this album. Being already a pretty no-bullshit band, their more true-to-the-original approach to these songs works in their favor, not making them appear too desperate to plug them into their own formula or overcompensating with unfitting quirkiness.

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