Artist: Valient Thorr
Album: Legend of the World
Label: Volcom
Tracks: 12
Length: 48:33
Review by: John Durkee

Valient Thorr has been around for a few years now and has generated some hoopla in recent years amongst the punk rock community. The band also claims to have gained its influences from “space churches” and that they are all from Venus. With this sci-fi theme and bizarre names like singer Valient, guitarists Eidan and Odin Thorr, bassist Dr. Professor Nitewolf Strangees and drummer Lucien Thorr, novelty, it seems, is at the core of what Valient Thorr is.

Valient’s sound is a brutal, intense and no-holds-barred version of classic rock with punk speed. The sense of urgency on Legend of the World is felt to the point of causing ear fatigue by mid-album. In fact, Valient’s thunderous and vociferous record is almost deafening (I almost stopped it at several moments throughout my listening and could barely listen to the whole record more than once). This is a pity because when listening to the album it is obvious that the band is very skilled and capable of making a great record as musicians, but it remains unclear that they can write a song that will keep your attention before giving up on the noise.

Lyrically the band is very political with songs like “Goveruptcy” and “Exit Strategy” marks the album with both the obvious statements as well as complaints over Bush’s foreign policy. While the band’s overall sound did not seem to mesh so well at the Warped Tour these last two years, there overall message matched the tour very well.

If you like loud music played at break neck speed with heavy influences from classic rock like Kiss, Thin Lizzy, The Who and tinges of southern elements, then this will rock your socks. Otherwise I’d suggest passing on this gratingly loud album.