hard rock

He Is Legend

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North Carolina band who grew out of early-2000s post-hardcore into something swampier and slower-burning — Schuylar Croom's howl over riffs with real southern grit.

He Is Legend formed in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 2003, when high school friends Adam Tanbouz, Steven Bache, Matt Williams and Schuylar Croom settled on the name after playing under several earlier ones. The name is adapted from Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend. The band arrived alongside a wave of American post-hardcore acts but has drifted steadily away from that starting point.

Fronted by vocalist Schuylar Croom, the group traded much of its early screaming for a thicker, bluesier hard rock sound, with sludgy tempos and riffs that owe as much to southern rock as to metalcore. The 2004 debut I Am Hollywood, released through Solid State Records, and the follow-up Suck Out the Poison marked this shift; It Hates You, put out on Tragic Hero Records, carried it further.

Croom's voice, a raw, elastic howl that can drop into a drawl, remains the band's signature, set against guitar work that favours heavy, downtuned grooves over speed, closer in weight to the riffing of southern rock than to the sprint tempos of much post-hardcore.

The lineup has shifted over two decades; Croom is now joined by guitarist Adam Tanbouz, bassist Matty Williams and drummer Jesse Shelley. Across records the band has moved between alternative metal, stoner-leaning hard rock and quieter passages, keeping a devoted following from its early-2000s scene while sounding progressively less like it.

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hard rock