The entry into the scene of Ikarie, capable with their first album Cuerpos en Sombra to offer a superb interpretation of post-metal intertwined with doom, has immediately raised the quality bar in the sub-genre. Two years after that wonderful debut, the Spanish band returns with their second album Arde, which not only confirms but definitively makes explode the potential of this band led by guitarist Daniel Gil and bassist María V. Riaño, also author of all the lyrics, who are joined by the other two guitarists Paco Porcel and Luis Albadalejo, drummer Dom Santoro and vocalist Pablo Egido, already known for his militancy in the excellent The Holeum. This line-up succeeds, with an album of spasmodic intensity, in fatally attracting the listener’s attention: the themes touched upon are those of violence against women and the risk that this multiplication of events creates a sort of habituation in people and public opinion. Indeed, Ikarie seek to raise the listener’s awareness not only through a sound that is intense and, at the same time, is also capable of passages of great melancholy, but also by telling stories from the past and tragic events that have involved several women in the history. The key to this is to be found in a phrase on the bandcamp associated with the title track, which reads in Spanish: ‘Nuestra época obliga a tomar partido‘ that means ‘Our times require us to take a stand‘. And it is precisely this that must be done, also listening to a musical offering of enormous quality, with five splendid carrier tracks (interspersed by shorter others with ambient elements and sampled voices) such as Santa Sangre, La Sed, Surcos (Ciutat morta), Tomie and Titane II, capable of taking Ikarie to such an high artistic level that they can already be considered one of the best musical expressions to have emerged in the new decade, not only in this stylistic sphere.

2023 – Avantgarde Music