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| Ikon - Love, Hate and Sorrow |
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| Written by Katrin Renner | |
| Thursday, 22 October 2009 | |
 Title: Love, Hate and Sorrow Artist: Ikon Genre: Gothic, Postpunk, Rock Release Date: 15th October 2009 Label: Apollyon
Album ReviewComing from Australia, IKON has been called “The AC/DC of Goth“ due to their long-term international success. Formed 18 years ago, the band can look back on five EPs, seventeen singles and five long-players. Since 15th October, the sixth full-length release `Love, Hate and Sorrow´ has been available as a digi pack including two CDs: The first one features 12 official tracks; the second one contains 10 acoustic songs. This review only comments on CD1, as the promo package didn’t include the acoustic part. Kicking off with `A Line on a dark Day´, the album’s style is characterized by melodic male vocals that hauntingly accompany the vivid U2-like guitar playing you will also find on some of the following tracks. The up-tempo `Before the Dawn´ picks up the thread of the previous song while `Torn Apart´ is a gloomy and throttled Gothic piece with nice synth lines. Regarding rhythm and arrangement, `Memoirs of a Butterfly´ strongly reminded me of JOY DIVISION material. The title track is one of my personal highlights providing a catchy melody, thoughtful lyrics and powerful guitar riffs. Particularly, I appreciated those tracks coming up with playful keyboard sounds connected to the driving guitar; besides `Memoirs of a Butterfly´, `Beautiful Sadness´ is worth mentioning at this point. The latter one is introduced by dragging drums leading over to a nearly sweet retro melody and emotive vocals resulting in one of the rare ballads on this album. All in all, the long-player´s soundscape appeared to me like an inspiring and energizing combination of JOY DIVISION, U2, THE M ISSION and SISTERS OF MERCY. Thus, fans of those bands could relish this atmospheric and melancholic piece of work. Tracklist CD 1 01. A Line on a dark Day 02. Before the Dawn 03. Torn Apart 04. Memoirs of a Butterfly 05. Winter Mourning 06. Beautiful Sadness 07. Amongst the Runes 08. Love, Hate and Sorrow 09. Dead Man Tomorrow 10. All Depths of Despair 11. Point of No Return 12. Driftwood CD 2 (Sessions de-mixed) 01. Hindsight 02. Amongst the Runes 03. Driftwood 04. Broken Windows 05. Calm before the Storm 06. Memoirs of a Butterfly 07. Torn Apart 08. Beautiful Sadness 09. Stalag 13 10. Love, Hate and Sorrow Line-up Chris McCarter - Vocals, Guitar, Keys Dino Molinaro - Bass Anthony Cornish - Guitar Website http://www.myspace.com/ikonwave / http://www.ikondomain.com/ Cover Picture Rating Music: 9 Sound: 8 Extras: - Total: 8.5 / 10 Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts) |
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