Search - He Is Legend :: I Am Hollywood

'He Is Legend' is Legendary!

Holoholo Man | Kingsport, TN United States | 11/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I'm an older former rock guitarist that does good just to play the radio these days. I still really enjoy many different genres of music but am not easily impressed with much of today's music. I've seen just about everybody that was anybody in concert over the years. I used to think that real rock music died sometime around 1980 or so. I'm beginning to realize that it didn't die after all, just changed.



My son is a budding guitar wizard and brings in lots of different music for me to listen to, much that seems to lack talent. First it was emo, then screamo. Twas hard for me to distinguish between bands and a lot of them sounded the same on the surface. Then along comes 'He Is Legend'. WOW! Heavy duty music with a brilliant vocalist. I've just never heard anything like them before. A bit of Southern Rock reminiscent of 38 Special slamming right into Norma Jean. Although the lyrics occasionally seem non-sensical, the way it's put together is pure genius.



They stand out very much between all of the other bands that run the gauntlet out there today. So much that earlier in the week we drove over 300 miles from NE TN to Atlanta, GA to see them at the Masquerade and were not disappointed in the least. They put on a killer show and faithfully played their fairly complex stuff live to a packed house that just couldn't get enough of them. We really enjoyed them and got to talk to some of them afterwards and they are really nice guys, even the over-the-top headstanding/crowd surfing/shaking-his-butt singer Schuylar Crooms. They are a "Must See" act if you get the chance. Buy this album, you will not regret it!!! Intelligent, very capable musicians and singers are not that common in this age of Rap/Crap. HIL needs to flourish as an inspiration for future generations of musicians and music lovers. 'He Is Legend' is truly worthy of being called a legendary band."

I am impressed.

Luke Rounda | Lawrence, KS | 07/14/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Pigeonholing this record in with mere hardcore is an insult to potential listeners. Calling it plain old stereotypical hard rock is even more insulting. Why? Well, if I didn't know any better, I might mistake the opening of "Eating a Book" for a lost Van Halen riff. "Domestica"-era Cursive forms the basis for "The Creature Walks." Santana's body double for the night steps in on "Dinner With a Gypsy," my personal favorite, which features rubbery, singing guitar passages that go on and on to the rapt delight of anyone within earshot. These are only three songs. With influences so radically different from one another, it's hard to go wrong, assuming the execution is up to par. It is. He Is Legend mesh the aforementioned sounds into their own brand of hellish, chaotic rock.



About the only common element all ten of these songs share is volume, volume and more volume. Unless you're used to getting the senior citizens discount from the Thursday afternoon matinee, this shouldn't be a bad thing.



However, it is a bit tacky the way in which He Is Legend insist on "tacking on" bits of hardcore thrash to the ends of most of the songs on this record. The title track -- a clunky exercise in shiftless musical drama -- is coincidentally the most influenced by hardcore of the ten cuts here: a dissonant car wreck with eponymous lyrics that cryptically describe a bizarre kidnapping and ransom.



For the most part, though, the number of worthy moments outweigh the bordering-on-unlistenable ones by a fairly large margin. Worth a look for something not quite the norm in the realm of hard rock."

He is Hollywood

Ieatemokids | Virginia | 01/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Forgive me if I'm overemotional here:



OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!!!!!



He is Legend almost fooled me. I heard the opening and closing tracks from "I am Hollywood" and pitted them as a rock/hardcore band, but they are just so much more than that. Throughout the thoughtful lyrics, sing along choruses and raging endings of the songs on "I am Hollywood" there is an energy that makes one almost unable to discontinue listening to the album. The ferocity of the title track and the melodic swooning in "The Greatest Actor..." are stunningly different yet surprisingly similar. This band plain "rocks". And in the most commonly understood form. They may be a hardcore band or an emo band or something, but the energy that this album has is unreachable by anything else in the genre.



I'd say it does shatter convention a little bit. Just listen to "the walls have teeth" and tell me that isn't refreshing. It's melody but it turns to aggressive but still maintains a subtle balance as if the band really isn't going either way, but is just a natural phenomenon.



You've made it to the page for the album, so what are you waiting for, go buy it. It rocks."