the icon is back from the dead. after the band called it a day in 2010. in 2015 rumours were floating around the guys consider a reunion. now, round about six years after despised icon disbanded, they are back with this new beast. prior to the release of course nuclear blast, their new label, gave us a first taste of what the record would sound like in form of a video to the song "beast". man, that song is great. there is a lot of this "ills of modern man" vibe going on, not least because of the revived pig squeals of vocalist steve marois. yes, i wanted it.
these days nuclear blast made it a habbit to offer a few coloured copies of u.s. pressings of their releases. the european edition comes on dark green vinyl and the u.s. edition on olive green vinyl. even though it is less limited, i thought the olive green looked way better. especially because of the green instead of black and white centre labels. so i pre-ordered that one. but now to the thing which actually counts - the music. "beast" is a great comeback record. i feel like it has the biggest hardcore share of all icon albums to date.
it won't beat "the ills...", if you ask me and there is definitely room for improvement, but man, it is a damn good listen and the proof that this band is still relevant. i saw them a few times in the past and remember that they were a pretty intense live band. with this new stuff up their sleeves, i am really looking forward to catch them at some point again. slip sleeve and printed dust sleeve. 1.000 copies pressed on this nice olive green vinyl. release date is actually at the end of july. i was quite surprised to recieve it last week. well, doesn't hurt actually. nuclear blast. 2016.
