‘I cannot, I will not, conform or try to fit, hold high your heart.’
I saw the Dynamo Is Dead programme that aired recently, and I think it’s quite fitting here with the return of Alex Varkatzas, known for his time with Atreyu, and now presents his new project called Dead Icarus. We all hear about the stresses and strains of life in the music industry, all artists suffer them, and sometimes people need to take a step back and re-evaluate their situation and decide the best way to proceed.
After a period of much soul-searching and consideration, Alex began his journey back into music, not from scratch, but from experience. His wounds would shape his future, the positives and the negatives would be used as foundations and the blood, sweat and tears would be the fluidity that would fill in the grooves and cracks in the finished piece. The hesitancy that accompanies such a trial, the indecision is painful, and through the pain you come out fighting. He recruited Gabe Mangold and Brandon Zackey of Enterprise Earth for guitars, bass and drums respectively, to formulate an EP to define his intentions and his beliefs. We start off with ‘Sellout’ which has a creepy Alfred Hitchcock inspired video and has a memorable melodic chorus sitting next to the heavier segments, typical of the metalcore style. The video for ‘So I Set Myself On Fire’ stokes the Blair Witch vibes, in a forest, in a wood, a figure in a black cloak stood. It’s time for the reckoning, time to be reborn and show yourself to the waiting world.
To finish this short but sharp introduction we have a stonking cover of ‘Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit’ by Pantera, you get that awesome chugging riff that is the cornerstone of the song, holding the composition high up in the stratosphere.
There is always an eager anticipation when an artist makes a comeback, looks like he is on the right side of the bed now.
Azra Pathan
Dead Icarus – Ad Infernum out now