After the release of their
Colossus/Iron Dream single, it was clear that
Young Legionnaire could be the band that would breathe new life into post-hardcore, bringing a new heaviness to the eclectic style without falling back on a lot of the clichéd tropes that had been watering down the genre. On its full-length debut,
Crisis Works, the band makes good on that promise, drawing on influences from post-punk to the heavy doom pop of
Torche to make an album that sets the band apart from -- and also outdistances -- the rest of the pack. The album surges to life with “Twin Victory,” a detuned riff-fest that storms out of the gate with its intense, droning guitars driving the song forward with a refreshing relentlessness. Deeper in, “Black Lions” gallops ahead as it gradually builds through little peaks and valleys, controlling the mood with the guitars while the drumming keeps the song constantly stomping forward, with the whole thing eventually taking a hard right into a searing hard rock breakdown before it abruptly ends. There are plenty of moments on the album that aren’t all about pushing the envelope, instead allowing the songs to open up with a little bit of drift to stop the album from becoming monotonous. As a whole,
Crisis Works is an album that not only pushes the genre forward, but also sets a pretty high bar for
Young Legionnaire, which is something that will hopefully benefit the listening public at large for years to come.