Made up of two of the founding members of Pop Punk giants, Yellowcard – Longineu “LP” Parsons and Ben Harper have reunited after 10 years to form This Legend. Joining them is Chris Castillo and Steven Neufeld, who are also well know and active members of the LA Punk Scene.
For a lot of bands, the sheer weight of expectation and pressure to compete with previous bands often is too tough to combat. However, this is not the case for This Legend as they create catchy and uplifting pop punk.
They are fuelled by the band’s positive outlook on life and they use this as the heartbeat of the band which is clear when listening to the album. The album, for me, serves as a fantastic soundtrack to growing up and is a very reflective album on past relationships, places of residence and various things that have hapened. Songs like ‘Lyrics With My Pen’ and ‘Moving On’ resurrect the old school Yellowcard which got two of the members their acclaim. As the album progresses though, This Legend announce themselves not as Yellowcard 2.0 but a well rounded yet diverse pop punk outfit who can write a damn good tune.
Longineu “LP” Parsons as always provides mesmerizing drumming throughout but This Legend not only help him showcase his talents which I think were with restrained on post-Paper Walls Yellowcard, they all come together to create mind-blowing instrumentals. Lead singer, Christ Castillo also delivers some fantastic vocals which when all things considered, these guys really do rock.
This for me, is what pop punk is all about. It seems a lot of former heavyweights within the genre have lost their way by leaning more towards the pop side of it instead of the punk and this is why I am so relieved This Legend show that there is still bands who create honest pop punk. Now, this album doesn’t provide much shock or any groundbreaking new ideas but that’s the genre for you. This Legend must not be disheartened by that comment though because I mean it in the highest regard because it’s good their sound is familiar, like a warm cup of coffee on a cold day, it’s comforting to listen to their music because it feels like your talking to an old friend.