Artist: Icon In Me
Label: Massacre Records
Release: 2009
Duration: 46:45
Rating: 3.5/5
Even Massacre Reocords have finally softened up, and the label, which is devoted to promoting traditional forms of heavy metal, has signed a deal with a Euro-Russian project called Icon In Me. The band was founded by guitarist D.Frans of Hostile Breed and isn’t even two full years old. Yet it’s already bringing its second studio album to the horizon.
This is an intense record packed with the eruptive force of aggression, noisily bleating its way through three quarters of an hour and bound to make every proper metalcore fan happy. Trendy principles that trap traditional American thrash, which in the track Dislocated can even bump up against something Fear Factory or the new In Flames could have cooked up, get the listener to wildly prick up their ears (that feeling, offered by the opening Dislocated, never comes back later).
Ultra-incinerating riffing, backed by the precise, solid, sonic rolling of double bass drum pedals! Commanding all of it is the excellent vocal of Tony Jelencovich, who gives the album an especially strong stamp. It’s mid-pitched, ominous and generates incredible expressive power. You can’t deny this principle throughout the album “Human Museum”.
Icon In Me are no special oddballs. There are bands like this as thick as leaves and grass. The lucky thing is that these are excellent musicians, who come across as very cohesive and convincing on “Human Museum”. Parallels can be drawn with bands like Darkane, Mnemic and also Carnal Forge. The band lines up a varied batch of compact, hot wreckers who keep egging each other on to push the raging ferocity that metalcore demands. Here and there the lads know how to ease up on the unbridled savagery of the aggression when a melodic vocal sneaks into the choruses (Dislocated), or the other way around. In the pre-chorus, like in the track End Of File, which has rhythmic turns in the middle as well as at the end, the guys prove they’re also masters at crafting pleasing solos and melodies, which suit the basic sharpened metalcore that Icon In Me hold on to. Tricks like these keep the dynamics high and the interest level up. Empty Hands, which also gets help from a clean vocal in the chorus, stands out with a mid-paced rolling rhythm over which heavy, dull riffs crawl, creating a great shift of mood onto a new track of the album.
This is an album that’s relentless in the essence described in the three paragraphs above. Given that, on its musically expressive side, you chew through it and digest it quickly, it really serves for spinning when you need someone else to be angry in your place. To let out that rage you yourself aren’t allowed to, since in some “foolishness” it could easily land you in jail (mmm,.. not in Slovenia probably, because the biggest “criminals for the nation’s good” stay free the whole time anyway).
I’d also like to add that the creation of this bold American product, made in the hands of Europeans, also involved Steve Smyth (Testament, Nevermore), Flemming C. Lund (The Arcane Order) and Andy Solvestrom (Cipher System, Evildoer), which gives the final look of the product an extra touch of quality. Icon In Me are a really nice addition to the metalcore scene. They don’t offer anything new or special, mind you. But they’re convincing in action and keep their heads firmly screwed on, which proves they know what they want.
Lineup
Tony Jelencovich – vocals
Artyom Sherbakov – guitar
D.Frans – guitar
Konstantin Kashtalap – bass guitar
Morten Loewe Sorensen – drums
Production
Jacob Jansen
Tracklist
1. Dislocated
2. That Day, That Sorrow
3. End of File
4. Empty Hands
5. Moments
6. Blood Ritual
7. To the End
8. In Memorium
9. The Worthless King
10. Turn the Dead on
11. Avoiding the Pain
