Review: Icarus Witch - Draw Down The Moon | |||||||
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Draw Down The Moon | |||||||
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Label: Cleopatra Records Year released: 2010 Duration: 35:36 Tracks: 9 Genre: Heavy Metal Rating: Review online: March 14, 2010 Reviewed by: Sargon the Terrible |
Readers' Rating How do you rate this release? Rated 3.5/5 (70%) (16 Votes)
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Review | |||||||
Icarus Witch seemed to open their career in a big way with a lot of publicity for the Roses On White Lace EP and then for the Capture The Magic album, then their promotion machine seemed to go off the rails, as the next two albums have been released to less and less fanfare even as they keep getting better. I don't think Draw Down The Moon is overall quite as good as the great Songs For The Lost, but it does reach heights unknown to other IW albums. On one hand, this album is rather short at just 35 minutes, and there are several dead spots such as the sluggish "Reap What You Sow" and the annoying "Aquarius Rising". But then there are awesome songs like "Black Candles", "Dying Eyes", "Funeral Wine" and the epic title track – songs that are distillations of everything that has ever been good about this band, and pretty much represent the pinnacle of their songwriting to date. Even the songs that don't leap out at you, like "Serpent In The Garden" and "Haunting Visions" have fistfuls of killer riffs packed into them. Singer Matt Bizilia really steps up as frontman on this album. He has always been a good singer with a distinct voice and phrasing, but here he has taken his talent to a whole new level, and his performance is spine-chilling. I want to rate this higher, as it represents some of the best material this band has ever done, but it's inconsistent and just too damned short. Padding it with a cover of "The Ripper" doesn't help matters, even if it is a really good cover, it's still wasted space where another original song could have been. And I want more original work from this band - I have to dock for the short length because I want this album to be longer. I want more songs like "Black Candles" and "Funeral Wine", because they are about as good as it gets. Heavy, mystical, haunting and visceral. Icarus Witch are too individual to ever be a "big" band, but when they are on, they do it as well as anyone ever has. |
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More about Icarus Witch... | |||||||
Review: Capture the Magic (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible) Review: Goodbye Cruel World (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible) Review: No Devil Lived On (reviewed by Mjölnir) Review: Rise (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible) Review: Roses On White Lace (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible) Review: Songs For The Lost (reviewed by Larry Griffin) Review: Songs For The Lost (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible) Interview with Sin (bass) and Matthew (vocals) on April 18, 2005 (Interviewed by Sargon the Terrible) | |||||||
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