Album Review: Icon Of Sin - Icon Of Sin

 

Everyone has influences, I get that. There's nothing wrong with taking a couple of cues from the people who inspired you. There is, however, a line where taking influence becomes ripping them off, and that's when it can get a bit uncomfortable. If you're presenting yourself as an artist, and what you do is nearly a clone of someone else, I'm not sure what to say. It might be impressive, but it feels so much like a cheap gimmick.

That's where Icon Of Sin comes in, because there is no way to listen to them without being smacked in the face by the Bruce Dickinson impression being done by singer Raphael Mendes. It's an impressive feat, and I give him all the credit in the world for how well he pulls it off, but it's distracting this the idea that this is a band I should be listening to. By going so far to copy Bruce's voice, it sounds more like an excuse to parade that talent than to give this band their own identity.

The lack of creativity is apparent right from the start, since the first song is a title track of a self-titled album. Yes, the band, album, and song are all called "Icon Of Sin". Nothing makes me think you put less effort into your work than that triple play, so five minutes into the album I'm already having serious doubts about them.

One of the things I've always wondered about modern metal is why more bands didn't take inspiration from Bruce Dickinson's solo albums, "Accident Of Birth" and "The Chemical Wedding". Icon Of Sin does, which I appreciate, but that's where we get back to the problems of copying. Some of the vocal lines, especially in "Shadow Dancer" also feel like an attempt to write what Bruce would have. The entire album comes across as play-acting Bruce Dickinson. There isn't anything at all about this record that tells me who Icon Of Sin are, other than big fans. They don't really have anything in their sound that is theirs, that is unique, that I should want to listen to instead of a Bruce Dickinson album. Let's be real here; Icon Of Sin can't touch Bruce's best solo work.

Gimmicks can be good thing. Ghost works in large part because of their gimmick. Icon Of Sin doesn't. The entire length of the album, I couldn't shake the feeling of 'meh'ja-vu. That's a new term I'm coining for when something feels eerily familiar, but obviously inferior. Sure, it's comforting to hear something that sounds like what we already love, but it's also pointless. All the similarity does is make the comparison impossible not to make, and that's not going to work out favorably.

Icon Of Sin is the sort of band that's amusing for a song or two, just to hear the novelty, but they aren't a band to listen to in the long-term. They need to be something other than the band that sounds like Bruce Dickinson. They don't show any of that here, so this isn't a record I would recommend.