Among Legends - Take Good Care

After releasing three EP’s since their formation in 2016, Ontario’s Among Legends are back with their debut full-lengther Take Good Care.  Along with producer Siegfried Meier, who has worked with the likes of Face to Face, Kittie and Chuck Ragan, the band has come up with thirteen great tracks that draw on elements of a more intelligent pop punk and earlier punk, reminiscent at times of bands like Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Bayside and the sadly underappreciated Valencia.  While quite a few of the songs here stick fairly close to a pop punk sound like “Magnolia” and “Greyhound”, they often tend to add something that sets them apart like the laid-back groove of “Days Like These” and the nostalgic feel of “On The Line”, a song that somehow sounds like a Summer day, or the faster pace of “Monochrome” and “Five Years”, the latter of which has some great double time drumming.  A lot of the other songs find them branching out and expanding their sound.  Tracks like “Come Up Swinging” and the minute long “Baywatch” are a little more aggressive and have more of a Bad Religion vibe, while closer “Highrise” is a tight more straight-ahead, gritty punk tune that really showcases the band’s musicianship and reminds me a lot of Bayside (Mitchell Buchanan’s vocals throughout the album often remind me of Bayside vocalist Anthony Raneri).  “Oceans” and “11318” stray a little from the punk, although not completely, with the former veering a little towards more of a rock tune and the latter slowing things down a tad, but picking up the intensity and heaviness.  Lastly we have “Manifesto”, a bit of an anthem, with great group vocals that should go over great live and then there’s “Rigged”, another slower song that’s very dynamic, full of shifting tempos and a spoken word section that’s quite different from the rest of the album.  It is a track that shows a lot of possibilities for where they can go with their music in the future.  I really enjoyed Take Good Care and look forward to seeing what’s next for this five-piece. 

(Little Rocket Records)