The 2004 Reviews Section: Icon Of Hyemes, Unpopular

ICON OF HYEMES

UNPOPULAR
SELF-RELEASED, 2002

I think one has to be a generally independent person to review death metal constantly. It's hated by most people, yet those who are positive about it find something interesting about the genre. It's uncanny. I sometimes wish I wasn't reviewing this music - it'd be easier to make myself look interesting and sell myself as a popular, critically loved and respected music journalist by reviewing something like pop or new wave. Reviewing death metal makes most people assume I'm at best a fucking moron and at worst a malicious, Satan-worshipping serial killer. Screw me for being intelligent. I mean, no metal is.

OH MY GAWD! IT'S KANE!

It doesn't matter that the lyrics to Unpopular aren't half bad and are somewhat intelligent and purposeful. It matters not that Icon of Hyemes' merger of Swedish and American death metal influences is wholly successful. Despite this album being obviously about something deeper than Satan, it's just assumed by most that the genre is about Satan and "cheese" for some reason. Sadly, it's something I have to deal with when reviewing a band like Icon of Hyemes. Death metal is a negative genre by necessity, because the vocals (here offered duly by Filippo Urso), the guitars (played decently by Vincenzo Di Maria and Luca Enei) and everything about the genre is about negative emotions, and it's hard to focus on that constantly. People are bothered by (and listen to) stereotypes instead of making their own educated, independent decisions. It's something I don't get.

Now, I would sit on the fence when reviewing an album like Icon of Hyemes' Unpopular. I didn't find anything that stood out while listening to the album. Even though the musicianship is top-notch and the band is obviously ready in a professional sense, there wasn't anything I found particularly interesting about Unpopular during this almost twenty-minute excursion into darkness. Most people would write this off as "another stupid fucking death metal album" and leave it at that. Who's really right here? Why don't we as a people accept that fans of different musical genres have different tastes and leave it at that? Maybe I don't understand much about the world yet.

D33p, huh? I should write more when angry. It makes me sounds smarterer. BLEAAAH BURN THE FATTED PIG

KICK PROMOTION AGENCY
c/o Enrico Giannone
Via San Rocco 31
80016 Marano (NA)
ITALY
http://www.kickagency.com/
[email protected]

ICON OF HYEMES
ITALY
http://www.iconofhyemes.com/
[email protected] (LUCA/GUITARS)
[email protected] (MATTEO/DRUMS)
[email protected] (FILLIPO/VOCALS)