Sometimes it’s better to go on, evolve and burn bridges with the past in order to make it and present the new – renewed – you. That’s the case here with Icarus Witch. They had to make a choice for their future… and they did choose right. The new vocalist Christopher Shaner, the new 2nd guitarist & producer Dave Watson (Grave Desire, ex-Mantic Ritual) & the new drummer Tom Wierzbicky (Thunderfist), brought euphoria to the band’s ranks and updated the sound & the songwriting for the better.
Leaving aside the most traditional metal features ala Dio, Judas Priest, Accept etc. they renewed their sound & made it more contemporary with various hard rock, melodic metal, heavy metal influences from bands like Maiden (mostly from the Blaze era), Lillian Axe & some more modern ones such as Avenged Sevenfold, Black Tide, Burn Halo etc. (mostly in the sound part not so much as a style though) presenting something quite exciting, fresh & energetic. The album was produced by the new guitarist, Dave Watson and mastered by Mark Richardson (The Black Keys, Baroness). The final result is very powerful and heavy. They’ve done a hell of a job actually. There are times that you may think that this could have been a totally new band… even if they are indeed in a way…
The album flows quite wonderfully as soon as you press “play” and the first notes of “The End” bursts into. The cover artwork is sensual and brilliant as well… if only they could take off that veil off the sexy witch huh!! Although I don’t actually fancy to refer to songs separately, I think that the potent hard rockin’ opener, “The End”, the appealing “modern” melodic rocker “(We Are) The New Revolution” that will be a great tune to play on stage, the superb hard & tuneful “Coming of the Storm”, the melodious hard n’ heavy hymn “Tragedy”, which is catchy as hell, the astonishing & touching ballad “Nothing is Forever” are totally worth checking out.
Retaining their fan base and gaining new fans will be their big bet here… even though I believe that “Rise” will bring new fans on board no matter what. So, if you into hard rockin’ guitars, metallic vibrant rhythms, wonderful vocal melodies with a fresh-modern sound… then Icarus Witch has got what it takes to rock you hard…
