Celtic Legacy were formed in 1998 by Dave Morrissey and Dave Boylan. The two had spent 1997 writing and demoing material and subsequently put the first line-up of Celtic Legacy together to record the songs on a self-financed album. Although the original line-up barely lasted past that album’s release, the album sales would finance the band’s follow-up album in 2003.
With a new line-up and more assured direction, Celtic Legacy’s second album: “Resurrection” was a much more accomplished effort and is regarded as the band’s most fondly remembered album. Tracks from “Resurrection” were to form the spine of the band’s live shows from this point on. Unfortunately tensions within the band led to another split in the ranks in 2004 leaving only the original founder members with the difficult task of rebuilding the band for a second time and losing all momentum that they had gained to that point.
The following album “Guardian of Eternity,” released in 2008, and the line up which recorded it, were not as well received as “Resurrection” had been and the band split, seemingly for good in 2009.
Celtic Legacy were resurrected (pun intended) as a recording project in 2014 and the resultant album: The “Lie of the Land” was released in 2015 to better reviews although with no full line-up in place, chances to properly promote the album were limited.
Another line-up shuffle in 2019 saw the return of Dave Boylan to the band and Old Season’s John Bonham take over on vocals. Not happy with the sound of the band’s first 3 albums and given that each album had been recorded with 3 different line-ups and vocalists, as well as having wildly differing production values, Legacy set about bringing those albums under one sound with one vocalist and attempting to give the back catalogue a level of consistency it had previously lacked. The first of these re-recorded albums: “Redux” was released on October 31st 2022.
The “Redux” versions of “Resurrection” and “Guardian of Eternity” will follow in due course and material is also being written for a brand new album to be released in 2024. The band is also putting a separate line-up together for live shows.
After 25 years the band would like to finally become an overnight sensation 🙂
Band Line-Up:
John Bonham – Vocals
Dave Morrissey – Guitars/Keyboards/Drums
Dave Boylan – Bass/Backing Vocals
Discography:
Celtic Legacy (1998) (Ind)
Resurrection (2003) (Ind)
Guardian of Eternity (2008) (ELCLCD003)
Celtic Legacy/Resurrection (2008) 2-CD ReIssue (ELCLCD004)
The Lie of the Land (2015) (ELCLCD005)
Redux (2022) (ELCLCD003)
Read our review here.
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!