Pittsburgh metal band has potential

[KiwiCoromandel]

Riding the coattails of bands like Iron Maiden, Dio and Judas Priest, the Pittsburgh thrash/power metal band Icarus Witch is trying to help bring back good old-fashioned'80s metal to the Steel City and overturn the black tide of the ever-growing hip-hop and pop scene.

Unfortunately, they are going to have to do a better job if they are to pull off an amazing feat like that.

Overall, the album is very predictable and follows the basic '80s formula for creating a rock ballad-based album. For the most part, it involves screaming the title of the song throughout the chorus and repeating the chorus as many times as they think is needed.

The best track on the album is the album's title track, which is a cover of Alice Cooper's "Roses On White Lace." Unfortunately, this track suffers the most abuse of the rock ballad formula, but its chorus is addictive and once in a while, a guitar solo comes in to break the repetition. I also think that this track best shows the abilities of each individual member of the band.

The guitar work of Steve Pollick on this album is very clean, powerful and at times very complex, like the playing of Rainbow's ex-guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, which is more interesting than anything Yngwie Malmsteen has released since his 1984 debut The Rising Force.

The vocals of Matthew Bizilia are nothing special. They remain rather high-pitched and unchanged throughout the whole album, and can be best categorized as a Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) and Ronnie James Dio (Dio) stew, with a dash of Rob Halford (Judas Priest).

The worst aspect of the album is by far its lyrics. As soon as you hear a song about a dragon rider casting a spell and sending dragon souls to hell, you know that it is time to turn off your compact disc player and find some other album to occupy your time. How about hearing another song about the city of Atlantis? I don't think I understood the point of that one the first million times I heard it.

Even though this album is no masterpiece like Iron Maiden's Brave New World, Icarus Witch has much potential for making groundbreaking albums in the future with their talent, but first they need to find a way to separate themselves from the average thrash/power metal band.

Source:pittnews.com