With the recent resurgence of old school thrash metal such as
Warbringer and the likes comes bands that bear the flag of modern thrash metal, fusing various elements of thrash metal and giving their sound a more modern twist.
Icon In Me is one such band, hailing from Russia and
Head Break Solution is their sophomore effort after the lukewarm response from their 2009 debut album,
Human Museum.
The album starts off strongly with a catchy riff of
Suicide World, backed by a powerful rhythm section. The band also plays with spoken samples at the background, which brings about a sense of unease and slight chaos to the music, giving a taste of what's to come on
Head Break Solution. However, as the album begins proper with Wasted Ways, all previous impression that has been built up thus far crumbles, with the hardcore shouting vocal style of vocalist Tony JJ, bringing about hardcore bands such as
Hatebreed to mind instantly. This gets particularly irritating on songs like Face It. As if this were not enough, the Tony JJ alternates between these "tough guy" shouting style and clean singing a la metalcore bands such as
Bullet For My Valentine and
Killswitch Engage. Speaking vocals on
The Quest further enhances this, backed by the breakdowns present in the music.
This is however, not to say that the music is without its credit as the rest of the band proves on their individual instruments. Guitarists Artyom and D. Frans constantly prove themselves on their axes through either face-ripping, sweep-picking solos or the well-thought out, melodic guitar solos. The sufficiently self-respecting thrashy riffs unleashed also ensure that the music does not disintegrate into a pure metalcore album. The band also brings in their melodic death metal influences through the razor sharp riffing style and guitar tone on songs such as Face It. The inclusion of clean guitars on songs like
The Quest also ensures that things do not get too boring and at the same time display their versatility.
Drummer Morten also proves that his huge portfolio is not without reason, through his energetic drumming style that enhances the listening experience of
Head Break Solution. The band also utilises instruments such as the keyboards and piano section present on songs like Un-Slaved and the ballad Tired & Broken to bring out the emotion felt in the music.
Despite this, songs tend to get pretty repetitive and boring as they drag on and would have definitely benefitted from shorter run times.
That said though,
Head Break Solution could be a good transition album for fans of metalcore looking into converting and changing their tastes into more aggressive and more legit metal.
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