The interesting world of punk is something that I’ve always been into but nothing I’ve been a fanatic about. Like metal and rock, it’s got its shining moments of brilliance but not often anything that makes me fall head over heels in love with what I’m hearing. Even so, the genre has always been kind to me and today that’s no different as my latest taste of it comes in the form of the debut EP from the Dutch act of Legendarium. While it’s nothing revolutionary at all, it’s definitely worth a listen.

To me, it’s very important for the imagery and the quality of an album’s cover art to be relevant to the content held within the album, and be preferably good while we’re at it. So seeing the cover art for Legendarium’s debut filled me with a good bit of hope as I dove headfirst into this band’s first endeavor. To be completely honest, it’s nothing worth going crazy over but it’s far from anything that I would steer away from. The most unattractive thing to me about Legendarium’s premiere effort has to be the vocals by far. They’re far too monotone and simply don’t fit the rest of the music to make things feel like a jumbled mess more times than not. But outside of that, I can’t see much wrong with what Legendarium is going for with this EP. Instrumentation is done quite well with plenty of variety going into the six tracks to make for a pretty healthy and well-balanced experience while still maintaining a core of metal with a sheet of punk wrapped tightly around it. If this debut was for an instrumental band, I’d be much more on board with what Legendarium is throwing down but the vocals bring it down for me to an album that definitely needs work. Yet, still a very acceptable album overall.

It’s quite bothersome that an album that could’ve been pretty decent was bogged down by something as key as vocals. ‘Tis an unfortunate thing that happens with newer bands all too often, but I’ve confidence that Legendarium will improve with time as most things do. These guys have made something that can become interesting if worked on properly, and I’d absolutely love to see that happen. We merely have to wait and see if Legendarium can deliver what we’ve peaked at their potential.

FOLLOW Legendarium on Twitter: @LegendariumBand