PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Let’s start this review with a little insight into the life of a (voluntary) music journalist…
Like everyone else who writes for PlanetMosh, this reviewer has a day job. Writing is a hobby, and we all do what we do for the love of the music we love – namely heavy fucking metal. And, each and every week, we get hundreds of emails and CDs begging us for our attention… craving us to give up the precious few hours we actually have to do so outside the long hours we have to commit to the tasks which actually pay our mortgages/rent, put food on our tables, pay for our whiskey and travels to festivals in every conceivable corner of the planet we call ‘Mosh’… Now, we’re only human, and we don’t have to do it, but we do our damndest to listen (or at least partially listen) to everything we get sent – after all, it’s only polite…
This debut EP from Leicester metalcore mob Icons was among a pile which fell through the letterbox here at PM’s Belfast outpost a week or so ago. Now, regular readers will know I’m not a fan of most things with those four dreaded letters ‘core’ on the end, but you’ll also know everything submitted to PM is considered on its own merits and we we always strive to be constructive in our critiques of everything offered for our adjudication…
In which spirit, it must be said that this particular four track EP is a particularly strong example of the genre: the songs are accomplished and confident, obviously well honed by the fairly incessant shows of which they boast in the accompanying press collateral, and performed well. The intertwining guitar work of Nick Toutjiaris and Joe Newman works extremely well, while vocalist Neil Vernon displays a suitably impressive range, switching comfortably between screaming, hoarseness and melodic styles.
It’s not ground-breaking stuff, and it certainly will appeal more to the younger ranks of the PM team than us older fogies, but it’s nevertheless a decent indication that the UK ‘core scene may be becoming increasingly less derivative than it has been in the past.
Track list:
Cataclysm / Fall Of Avarice / Helios / Hitch 22
Recommended listening: ‘Fall Of Avarice’
