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Reign In Metal
Zodiac :  Metal Reputation : 1
Join date : 2014-02-25
Location : Global Metal Domination
 | |  I.C.O.N - The Blacklist (2015) Album Review | |
I.C.O.N - The Blacklist (2015)
Metalbox Recordings/ ADL Management -- Running Time: 42:41
SCORE
9.5/10
Before I get on to what a great band I.C.O.N are and what a thumpingly brilliant album 'The Blacklist' is I, with all due respect to them and other writers, want to say something about how bands like this are reviewed in the UK. Hopefully, if you read my reviews regularly, you'll know that I am and have always been a huge fan of proper Heavy Metal. Notwithstanding that it was the UK that produced the Classic Metal sound with the likes of Priest etc, it is now Mainland Europe that dominates that market and there are hundreds of absolutely fantastic bands out there that carry the torch and have done for years. Unfortunately, in the UK that traditional sound, outside of the obvious names, has always been a hard sell and a majority of those bands are completely overlooked in favour of what Kerrang, Rock Sound and Scuzz deem appropriate! To then see I.C.O.N reviewed as a saviour of this sound makes me giggle and swear under my breath at the same time because they aren't. However, what they are, is concrete proof that the UK can deliver full on Heavy Metal as good as anything the rest of Europe has to offer but with a little twist that will keep all of you metalheads in North and South America more than happy!
I have always been a fan of this band but with 'The Blacklist', I.C.O.N's second album, it sees them upping the ante in spades, easily producing their best material to date and delivering an album that, without a shadow of a doubt, will be included in my end of year lists! This is a beast of a release, delivered by four guys who completely gel and as much as I have loved the music that preceded 'The Blacklist' this is the proper birth of I.C.O.N! If you need a comparison, I would actually advise you to just listen, then think German band Rage mixed with the Rock n Roll swagger of Motorhead. Vocalist Mark Sagar has a massive set of pipes, belting out the lyrics with gritty power and melody but never sacrificing either! Perennial nice guy Scott Knowles cranks out some monster riffs and solos on every track here, this is the sort of guitar sound that I was born to listen to and anyone who thinks you must have two guitarists in a Metal band can listen to Scott and think again. Of course it helps when you have a bass player that can fill the spaces without overplaying and Reece Bevan consistently nails it. Last, but most certainly not least, is my old mate Larry Paterson who has joined the I.C.O.N ranks on drums and they couldn't have picked a better man. Larry is a thunderously talented skin beater and it's his powerful rhythms and full on power that I think, arguably, has elevated I.C.O.N on this album, he is the final piece of the jigsaw so to speak!
From the dark and brooding instrumental opener 'A Room In Hell', first track proper 'Feeding The Negative', the immense 'Grindin' Wheel' which has one of the best full on headbanging riffs I've heard for a while right through to closer 'Drowning In The Screams' this is my album of the year so far. You might guess from my opening little rant that I.C.O.N aren't rewriting the book or doing anything that hasn't been done before but they are doing it right and that makes all the
difference!
http://www.iconukonline.com/
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https://twitter.com/icon_uk
http://iconrock.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ADLMgmt
https://www.facebook.com/MetalboxRecordings
Review written exclusively for Brutiful Entertainment by Rick Tilley:
www.facebook.com/richard.tilley.351
Others do not have the legal right to use this review, or part thereof, without the creator’s permission.
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