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Title: Love, Hate and Sorrow
Artist: Ikon
Genre: Gothic, Postpunk, Rock
Release Date: 15th October 2009
Label: Apollyon



Album Review

Coming 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


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