Band:	Icon Of Sin
Album:	Legends
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	August 2023

01. Cimmerian
02. Night Force
03. The Scarlet Gospels
04. In The Mouth Of Madness
05. Heart Of The Wolf
06. Bare Knuckle
07. Wheels Of Vengeance
08. Clouds Over Gotham, Pt. 2: Arkham Knight
09. Terror Games
10. Black Sails And Dark Waters

After a successful debut, Icon Of Sin released their new album Legends this year. The second record is often seen as one of the most important for a band; it is often the one that establishes them and shows that the debut just wasn’t a one-time 'lightning in a bottle' kind of affair. The question is, does Legends deliver?

Of the multiple bands that influenced Icon Of Sin for their debut, one stood out very prominently; I’m of course talking about Iron Maiden, which most of you probably know by now are a band very near and dear to my heart. No surprise then that I enjoyed Icon Of Sin’s first record, as it strongly invoked Maiden’s style, at times in a convincing way. However, in my review of that album, I mentioned that in terms of lyrics and songwriting, the band were clearly more limited than their main inspiration. This is nothing to be ashamed of, as in my view Iron Maiden is legendary in those aspects.

What I can say, however, is that there is definitely a noticable improvement this time around in terms of lyrics. A good example is “The Scarlet Gospels”; the lyrics sound a lot more mature here. In fact, this particular song embodies all the improvements that have been made compared to the first record. It very much follows the template that they laid out with “Clouds Over Gotham” (one of the best songs on the debut); however, in addition to the more refined and less cheesy lyrics, the production has also seen some improvements. The drums in the first record suffered a bit from a hollow sound, which resulted in them being less prominent in the mix and delivering less energy than I would have liked. That has been fixed on Legends; the album as a whole feels a lot more balanced.

Now, back to “The Scarlet Gospels” as the example of all the improvements the band has made. The song shows another production/mixing aspect that is typical for an Iron Maiden-style album. I’m of course talking about the bass; it’s absolutely wonderfully produced, even to the point where you can hear the bass strings clanging against the fretboard. Lastly, let me talk about the vocals: excellent, simply excellent. Raphael Mendez keeps getting better and better. On the first record, he convincingly managed to invoke Bruce Dickinson’s style in terms of the highs and snarls. Now, he also succeeds in conveying more dark tones in his lower register. I think the more mature lyrics certainly help him to explore this particular part of his vocal range.

Wow, this is turning into a very positive review, isn’t it? I have been mentioning improvement upon improvement throughout this review, so why is it then that I give this album a lower score than the debut? Well, there’s an important element that kind of got lost for me between the first record and this second outing: the catchiness. Songs like “Night Breed” and “Unholy Battleground” were already stuck in my head after a first listen to the debut, but there’s none of that on this record. I’ve given Legends 6 or 7 listens in total at this point, but while I always find it an overall enjoyable experience, I can’t say that my estimation for it has grown. In fact, the song that I already highlighted in this review is the only song that I find to be really memorable on Legends. Quite frankly, I think it’s the best song they have made so far, but unfortunately, I don’t have that same feeling with any of the other tracks on this album. This also means that after “The Scarlet Gospels”. the record falls off a bit without ever really picking up. The best way I can describe it, is that it’s going at a jogging pace, rather than a running pace. Now it jogs along quite well, and never falls into walking speed, but still I get the feeling that there was more potential here.

This is one of those cases where there are numerous improvements to be found compared to the previous album, and yet it falters in some key aspects to make it a truly great record. Like I said, this is an overall pretty enjoyable album, and I think if they manage to combine the best aspects of their debut and this album (like they did with “The Scarlet Gospels”) in their third record, we will have a big winner on our hands. As it stands right now, Legends is a solid record that unfortunately doesn’t reach its full potential.