Forgotten Gems-Legion-Legion of deth

The 80's truly saw puffy haired, spandex or denim and leather wearing dudes popping up all over the place. Everyone hoping to be the next Iron Maiden, Van Halen or whoever. Many were not in that league or ballpark or division or well, you get the picture. If you look hard enough can find plenty of bands from the 80's you have never heard of. Frequently there is a good reason why you have not heard of. Could be they stunk like raw sewage or it could be they were a short lived club in a not so hot music scene. I am not exactly sure what the case was for Cleveland's Legion because I could not find out much about them. I did find out that there have been a ton of metal/hard rock bands called Legion over the years.  In addition to this band's location I do know they were a trio who as far as I can tell released just this four track EP on Reeltime records in 1986. Now these guys were certainly not ready for the big time because this is a rough album. However it has a certain charm to it and a whole lot of energy. There is almost a live jam feel to it like they just squeezed their equipment into one of their basements or a garage and just played while they recorded straight through. It's not smooth production, but you can hear all of the instruments well enough. The real questions here are what did where they any good they sound like and what they sound like and? Of course you can guess the answer to that first question as I hinted at the answer and I would waste my time or yours putting them in this category if they sucked eggs. So yes they had some definite talent. For sound they were somewhere in between hard rock and metal bringing to mind other bands of the time like Vyper and Axtion. I wouldn't say they sounded a lot like Ozzy although it's obvious that their guitarist was very much influenced by Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee. This album was a fun listen and one of those bands where I really would have to seen what they could have done a full length album because I like where they were going on this album. Don't judge this one by the cover because this Legion put out a very likable album so many years ago.