powerful, emotional and oh so bloody full of itself
3 songs. 31 minutes. You’d better strap yourself in when listening to this because this lot will not be rushed. This is doom rock after all and these guys tend to like to wallow in their misery for a while. When Icarus Falls like to have their guitars drone and wail a lot, their drums aren’t hit as often as their cymbals and their singer likes to sound mean and moody on occasion, but most of the time he likes to sound like somebody just opened the car window at 70 miles an hour. I’m not sure what those death metal vocals are in aid of actually, they certainly don’t help the songs in any way, but I suppose it stops him sounding like that bore from the Editors (who unfortunately he does sound like on the title track, until he starts his throat shredding again). There’s some nice, haunting piano playing on the title track too, just to make things a bit more depressing. I know this sounds like a bit of a slagging off, but it’s not. They’re actually well worth listening to.
You know the kind of music they play in films and on tv when the hard man has a breakdown, or a child dies and you see parents crying and running in slow motion? This album is half an hour of that kind of thing, and very good it is too. It’s powerful, emotional and oh so bloody full of itself, but that’s not a bad thing here. They’re like a Swiss version of Sigur Ros, just without the strings and with worse vocals. Don’t listen to them if you’re feeling fragile or in need of a pick me up, however, because Incendiary will not be responsible for the outcome.
You have been warned.
Words: Damian Leslie