Charging out of the gate like it was 1979 again, Ikon makes goth music that strongly brings to mind the originators of the genre. From Bauhaus to Joy Division to the Legendary Pink Dots, Ikon sounds a whole lot like all of those bands. The only problem is where those bands were taking great pop songs and twisting them into depressing ditties, Ikon simply skips the song part and jumps straight into the glum rock. The resulting effort is a great-sounding record filled with all sorts of atmospheric guitar work and droning ...
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Charging out of the gate like it was 1979 again, Ikon makes goth music that strongly brings to mind the originators of the genre. From Bauhaus to Joy Division to the Legendary Pink Dots, Ikon sounds a whole lot like all of those bands. The only problem is where those bands were taking great pop songs and twisting them into depressing ditties, Ikon simply skips the song part and jumps straight into the glum rock. The resulting effort is a great-sounding record filled with all sorts of atmospheric guitar work and droning music, but lacking the essential structure to be as catchy as their forefathers. This may not be the goal of this genre, but it would help to make A Moment in Time a more memorable effort. Singer Michael Carrodus took his lessons from the Ian Curtis school of vocal training; he booms over the proceedings with his tuneless baritone and preaches his depressing message with dramatic conviction. Unfortunately, the message is a repetitive one: he is unhappy. Where many singers in the genre manage to paint haunting pictures of their depression, he just mopes about with his tail between his legs. This is fine for a few songs, but a whole album of unpoetic bleakness is nothing that hasn't been done before, and better. Ikon isn't bad, not by any means, they just don't manage to sustain the listener's interest throughout their album. But they have the sound -- this just isn't the record that they correctly apply it. ~ Bradley Torreano, Rovi
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