Iconic // Second Skin // Album Review

Supergroup you say? Yes please, who doesn’t love a supergroup? the coming together of some of the industry’s finest musicians in one place focused on laying down some quality songwriting for us to enjoy.

Iconic is the latest supergroup to arrive on the scene, Featuring Michael Sweet (guitars), Joel Hoekstra (guitars), Marco Mendoza (bass), Tommy Aldridge (drums), and Nathan James (vocals) and with a lineup like that what else would you expect but a blistering collection of tracks that remind us of our mortal position in this world.

And you would be right, from the album opener ‘Run (As Fast As You Can)’ you know this is going to be something pretty special, as a fan of the good old days of hair metal, being raised on albums such as Whitesnake 87’, Slippery When Wet, Hysteria and the likes this is right up my street. ‘Run’ has a taste of Whitesnake in its ferocity, a killer track that smacks you right between the eyes right from the off.

‘Ready For Your Love’ again, takes you right back to the 80s and sunset strip with its bluesy roots layer in heavily distorted guitars, glorious vocal harmonies fill each track to make these sounds sound even more grandiose than they already are. The vocal interchanges between James and Sweet are definitely a highlight of the album itself, but as to be expected the musicianship right across all 11 tracks is superb, from Mendoza’s solid baselines to Tommy’s killer drum work and Joel’s killer guitar lines they just have to be appreciated right across the board.

So if you love your death metal, black metal and post-hardcore this may not be your bag, but f like me you are a child of the 80’s hair metal heydays you’ll be in your element, a superb homage to the finest days of Sunset Strip and beyond, stadium sized anthemic tracks worthy of the glory days, what’s not to love?

Iconic – Second Skin is out now via Frontiers Music