LEGEND — Death in the Nursery (review)

LEGEND — Death in the Nursery album cover

Album · 1982 · NWoBHM

5/5 · 2018-03-31
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Discovering this wondrous thing called metal during the 2000's definitely wasn't to be sniffed at. By the time I really started to get invested in heavy music it had already done most of its evolving into the sub-genres we all know these days (and of course it still continues to evolve to this day). This time of discovery meant that the whole nu metal movement was on the decline, which many would say was dodging a bullet. But it also meant that younger metalheads like myself missed out on being there during what is arguably the most important movement that metal ever had or ever will have bar its original genesis in the early seventies: the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWoBHM). Sure, we still get to experience it through the recordings left behind, but while we'll all know of those who made it to become household names like Iron Maiden, Saxon or Angel Witch, many of us will miss those more obscure hidden gems that never got the same kind of attention or later reissues.

One of these gems is Death in the Nursery (1982) by Legend, a band hailing from Jersey. This album actually was reissued in 2012, but only on vinyl, a format that it has never been released beyond. A digital copy does appear on the US Amazon site, but this is not a privilege also accorded to the UK site. Since they are a band out of the NWoBHM I find that something of a kick in the teeth. Luckily, Legend's unsung classic is available for streaming via Spotify. Legend are in fact still going, having reformed in 2002 following an original 1984 split, and have released a further two studio albums, most recently in 2013. Death in the Nursery was their second and until 2003, their last.

What makes this one so good? Well for a start it comes across as pretty heavy for 1982. The riffs from sole guitarist Peter Haworth are full of bite and the band's production has more grit to it than the more polished work of say, Iron Maiden. I can't rightly say that Death in the Nursery was the heaviest heavy metal around back then, though as metal hadn't quite taken the leap forward in aggression that was thrash metal, though a bit of speed metal was about, but it seems to me as it must have been up there with the most metal driven work, lacking any kind of lingering attachment to hard rock. Furthermore, it's played with a passion and conviction that's infectious and often absent in modern heavy metal which comes drenched in so much modern production values that it just doesn't seem to have as much soul as this and other NWoBHM.

Even listening for the first time in 2018 it's impressive and brings a big smile to my face, so I can't even begin to imagine what it would have been like hearing it for the first time when it was new. I mean sure, it's not The Number of the Beast, released the same year and widely considered the finest album of the NWoBHM, but all the same I don't hear a single damn reason why Death in the Nursery should be considered any less essential to the NWoBHM canon as that seminal album. And in its title track they have what could easily be attributed to an early progressive metal song thanks to its complex instrumental break, which definitely sounds like it's before it's time. The earliest release I've heard that I'd describe as progressive metal is Siren's No Place Like Home from 1986, a whole four years after this and even though it's only one song here and only a section of it at that, that one part seems a whole lot more overt that anything else that would appear for a long time.

Legend and Death in the Nursery deserve better than it has been given so far. For starters it should at least be sold digitally all over and not just in America (again I mean come on it's a NWoBHM album and we can't purchase even an mp3 version in the UK? Lame!) and it certainly deserves a physical release beyond the vinyl. After thirty-six years a CD is long overdue. Come on Legend and record labels that specialise in old classics: make it happen! This masterpiece deserves it.