In Legend: Who Needs Two Guitars When You've Got Two Pianos?

Hey guys! So the other day on my Van Canto post a user by the name of immortalsoul (killer name!) left a comment saying that because I was a big fan of Bastian (the drummer of Van Canto) if I had ever heard of his side project called In Legend and he wanted to know my opinion of the group.  I looked them up and knew immediately that I wanted to blog about these guys.  Immortalsoul, as well as everyone else, I hope you enjoy my post about In Legend. 

When immortalsoul first mentioned In Legend, that name rung a bell somewhere in the depths of my mind.  I do remember seeing an add about them in a revolver, or youtube, someplace like that, but I hadn't really kept up with them since then.  So when I looked them up again I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. 

For those of you who don't know In Legend, they are the side project of Bastian, the drummer of Van Canto, where he... "oh Zach I know! I bet he plays drums!" no you're wrong, please sit down.  This time around Bastian leaves the drumming to someone else and demonstrates just how talented of a musician he is by playing piano and singing in his new group.  Now you're probably thinking, "Lots of bands use piano thats nothing new", well In Legend does something a little different.  The band is a quartet.  They have a drummer, a bass player, a guy to play electric keyboard, and Bastian who sings and plays lead piano, I guess you could call it.  That's it, no guitars or special effects or anything else you would find in your typical rock band.  In Legend proves that you don't need ripping guitars to make rock music that is powerful and beautiful.

The first song I heard from In Legend was "Pandemonium" from their debut Ballads 'n' Bullets.  The song stars with piano chords being played on the low end of the piano, they are accompanied by low notes on the bass and low tom hits on the drums.  This is where In Legend gets their power.  The use of the lower register of the piano, along with the bass guitar and the thunderous roar of the drums, provides the heavy bass feel that fans of rock are used to hearing in their songs.  From their the song moves along at a pretty nice pace, the low chords on the piano are aided by constant 16th notes from the bass drum, while Bastian provides a melody with the upper end of the piano and his voice.  Bastian's voice is another thing that helps this band.  I will be the first to say it, Bastian has a pretty good voice.  Its not like your typical rock voices that you hear now a days (I'm looking at you Theory of a Deadman, Nickleback, and Hinder (are they still playing?)), sure it has some raspiness to it, but the majority of the time he sings in a very nice, smooth voice and the raspiness only adds more texture to the song.

Here is the video clip for "Pandemonium".  I know there are only three members in the video, but trust me they use four.  

The next In Legend song I heard is probably my favorite song they do and one of the few songs I could listen to over and over again and never get tired of it.  I am talking about the ballad "At Her Side".  I saw on iTunes that "At Her Side" was the most downloaded song off the album so I had to see what all the fuss is about.  This song shows just how beautiful and powerful In Legend can be.  The beginning starts like your average rock ballad, a catchy melody played on a piano while the singer sings over it.  But then it gets different around 00:55, when the rest of the band comes in, instead of the cheesy sound of an 80's hair metal band, you get the effect of the bass, drums, and the low end of the piano.  This makes the song more powerful than any 80's ballad could have ever hoped to be.  I think that the fact that there are no guitars allows the song to stay beautiful and powerful, because if you were to add guitars to this song it would loose all the effect it had.  I will also say that "At Her Side" sounds like a song that I could hear a top 40's artist doing, its catchy, the end of the chorus line is "Sing with me, sing along!" and it will get stuck in your head, and its also (dare I say) sweet.  Except the difference is, if a top 40's artist were to do it, they would certainly ruin it with crappy electronics and autotune and everyone would get sick of it within a month.  Bastian and In Legend do it the right way giving the song incredible staying power.  

Here is the clip for "At Her Side"

Now some people may say "How can you call it rock if it doesn't have guitars?" To which I would say, listen to the songs, they everything they need.  The songs don't feel like their missing guitars, in fact if they did have guitars it would only take away from the strength of the songs.  And guess what you still find yourself banging your head and singing along to everything In Legend serves up. 

I'll say something similar to what I said about Van Canto, you don't have to be a fan of metal or rock to like In Legend.  If you like good music you will really enjoy what In Legend has to offer.  The musicality and songwriting are great and the songs are powerful, beautiful have the catchiness of pop songs and the power of metal songs.  If nothing more you have to appreciate the talent that Bastian has.  To go from being the incredible drummer that he is in Van Canto, to a great piano player, singer, and songwriter in In Legend is something that I am incredibly jealous of.  He's like the German version of Dave Grohl.  I highly recommend picking up In Legend's debut album Ballads 'n' Bullets, its a great album and is sure to please a fan of any music. 

Thanks guys!
-Zach

Remember if there is a band you want me to talk about or an album you want me to review leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal.