Valient Thorr – Legend of the World / 2006 Volcom / 12 Tracks / http://www.valientthorr.com / http://www.volcoment.com / Reviewed 19 October 2006

There is a lot of seventies rock influence to “Heatseeker”, the first track on “Legend of the World” by Valient Thorr. However, at the same time, Valiet Thorr tops that seventies sound with a set of vocals that closely approximate those of Dexter from The Offspring. There two styles blend together to make something that is powerful, grungy, and in the same vein of dirty and grime that their influences endowed themselves. There is a friendliness to their tracks that will mean larger amounts of play for the band, so Valient Thorr has that going for them as well.

The first track may be over four minutes, but it is not long enough and the material not scant enough to turn individuals off at this early stage of the disc. Where “Heatseeker” blended the seventies style with a newer, more punk style this is no tht ecase for “Rezerection”. There is little on this track that cannot be explained by Valient Thorr’s love of bands like ZZ Top, 38 Special, and early Ted Nugent. I see bands like Valient Thorr as being comparable to acts like Trivium not in any comparable sound that the bands may have with each other, but rather that they so deeply go into an older musical style and (often times) rescue it from irrelevance.

The guitars on “Exit Strategy” are influenced by eighties Megadeth, while the much more plain shouting of the vocals during that same track seems to play more in the thrash style than anything previous on “Legend of the World”. The band can play in practically any genre of rock that they put their minds to, and while Valient Thorr may come back to the seventies sound countless times during this album, tracks like “Exit Strategy” keep up note for note with other bands in that genre. The band comes through on the disc with none of the same flaws that are endemic with other bands that try to do the retro as seen by newer individuals thing; there are enough derivations from the prior style to make individuals able to listen to the entirety of the disc. I hope that Valient Thorr will be able to continually innovate and impress with future albums, and there star shines a little brighter (the band is already on Volcom, so they are pretty close to having a major deal) in the near future.

Top Tracks: False Profits, Con Science

Rating: 6.9/10

[JMcQ]