By Albert Mansour
A thundering and energetic traditional sounding band of heavy metal thunder, Pittsburgh’s Icarus Witch continues their excellent approach with this, their third full-length album. A highly talented band, Icarus Witch is far too under-recognized for their ability to rip out albums that are well-crafted and chock full of shredding metal. Checking out Icarus Witch should be on the top of any true heavy metal fan’s priority list. Vocally, this reminds me of 80’s underground star James Rivera (of Helstar and Seven Witches fame) especially on tracks such as “Dying Eyes,” “Funeral Wine” and “Black Candles”. It is a pretty hard task to find anything wrong here.
These guys produce a melting pot sound that takes the ‘hardest’ and purely metal characteristics of traditional heavy metal, melding it in the cauldron with more wrought iron, liquid metal and napalm, giving an energetic, lustful sound that kicks your ass. This is an outstanding album with that thrashy sound on “Black Candles”, a very metallic cut, with slower, doomed and menacing riffs, harder but still definitely having those NWOBHM characteristics intact. The production is pretty raw and edgy, but nothing too horrible by any means. Sound and style wise this band definitely fits in the traditional heavy metal glove, but Draw Down The Moon is a little more polished up than their first album, 2005’s Capture the Magic. Comparing these two albums I’ve heard, these are equally good as Icarus Witch displays there is even more potential for future releases. Highly recommended for fans into traditional heavy metal.
(Cleopatra Records)
Rating: 8.5
