Just over a year ago during one of my Bandcamp searches I stumbled upon a great album by Swiss band When Icarus Falls. The album in question was Aegean, and initially it were the artwork and genre tags that attracted me to this release, but upon listening I got quickly hooked to their attractive mix of post-metal/sludge. They now released a new EP called Circles, providing 4 songs basically continuing where Aegean left.
So, When Icarus Falls plays a nice mix of post-metal, sludge and listening to the new EP made me think about Cult Of Luna quite a bit, as there are so many similar elements to the music. It is very atmospheric, quite slow in parts and the vocals by Diego Mediano sound pretty similar to Johannes Persson’s vocals. But luckily I absolutely love Cult Of Luna and when another band sounds like them and they do a great job then there is absolutely nothing wrong with this.
Three out of four songs on offer here are new songs, with the fourth track ‘Nyx’ being a remix that was previously released on the Falling Down II compilation. First track ‘Erechtheion’ is with nearly 9 minutes the longest track on the EP, and it is a stonker of an opener. What I really like about this band is the continuous use of piano throughout the heavier parts of guitar riffing and chugging. It creates an interesting hazy atmosphere and during the opening build up of this first track the piano is already nicely present in the mix, together with more atmosphere creating strings. The rest of the track ticks all the post-metal boxes with various build ups leading to climaxes and explosions of sound, intermixed with beautiful instrumental pieces.
Second track ‘The Great North’ uses the same formula, with a slightly more angry sounding Diego on vocals, and again beautiful musical parts with clean piano over slow hitting drums and guitars building up towards yet another climax. The instrumental bit that starts just after 3 minutes is brilliant and induces quite a shiver in me as it is a stunning piece of music the band plays here. ‘Celestial Bodies’ is another long track, using all the aforementioned elements to the max again, but this track has an interesting bit of spoken word towards the end exclaiming, “I will never be king again, I will never be king again”, while building up more aggression and anger to finish the song in a fantastic pinnacle of this EP.
When Icarus Falls has again managed to produce a release that has all the elements I love in this genre: emotions, heavy guitars, heavy drums and plenty of atmosphere and build-ups. If you’re a fan of this genre then you should embrace this new EP with both arms.
The band will go on a last tour from April 25th to May 10th and as I understand they will take a long break after this tour, so Circles may very well be the last recorded output of this great Swiss band. If you by Circles now through their Bandcamp site you will get Aegean for free as well!
