Sicarus – Strength of All (2010)

Today we find ourselves listening to yet another band mixing Metalcore influences with something else. While this would usually mean that we start laughing from the beginning till the end of the band’s release, we actually find ourselves quite impressed with the solid effort put by Sicarus on their debut EP “Strength of All”.

Sicarus main strength lies behind the guitar acrobatics that Mad Scotsman and Jon provide the band with. We can make some comparisons with Into Eternity, Echoes of Eternity, Mutiny Within, etc. in this department, but the band does a great job at crafting a sound that does not rely on them too much (unlike the previously mentioned bands).

The second thing that makes “Strength of All” be a very solid EP is the fact that everybody except the drummer sings on this release. Having four people singing gives way for very interesting vocal harmonies that perfectly balance the band’s music, and change from your typical Metalcore clean vocals to near-Power/Heavy Metal singing (also very similar to the previous Into Eternity singer). A little drawback is that the harsh vocals are somewhat weak compared to the rest of the clean ones, and the band should either find a more suitable ‘harsh’ singer or just take them out of the equation.

When the guitars are not playing intricate solos, the band has a riffing style very similar to bands like Machine Head, providing a powerful sound to the ‘simpler’ sections of the music. There are countless of ‘typical’ breakdowns and in this releases they don’t make us want to poke our ear drums out since they are very well crafted and they never get annoying.

While Sicarus has enough musical abilities and is able to write excellent songs, we feel that the band is lacking a bit on the creativity department since all 5 tracks of “Strength of All” have very repetitive structures. The vocal harmonies, while excellent, tend to also get very repetitive after a few listens, so maybe they can cut back on the repetition and focus on creating even more epic vocal harmonies since they seem to have the singers to pull it off.

Overall, Sicarus is a band that we will be surely hearing a lot in the future. We think that “Strength of All” is a very solid EP and will surely generate the buzz and attention they need to jump to a ‘big’ label in the near future. For now, just sit down and enjoy some solid Metal songs with blistering solos, catchy chorus sections, and powerful vocal harmonies.

Release: 2010

Country: USA