Icare – Charogne (Recommendation)

When Adele released her her album 30 she “convinced” Spotify that the shuffle mode would be removed for this album. You had to listen to it in order. This even made the news in a lot of musical outlets. I just shrugged and so probably did a lot of Metal fans.

Icare took this approach to the next level and just release a single, album-long, track. Shuffle not possible, not even skipping. You have to listen to the whole thing or don’t listen to it at all.

Charogne is the second full-length by the Swiss Black Metal practitioners Icare. I really liked their last release Khaos and was eagerly waiting for this one. As mentioned in the beginning, this album consists of one, 45-minute-long, track. Icare already hinted with the last two tracks of Khaos that they are capable of writing very long songs that are captivating and not repetitive.

Charogne can be divided into several parts, but it would be plain stupid to skip to single parts. As said in the beginning, this thing is meant to be consumed whole. The most fitting comparison would be a big menu consisting out of several courses with one central theme.

First of all there is flat out blasting, thrashing or whatever you want to call that constant pummeling that is happening the first 8 minutes or around the 17 minute mark. Then there is Doom and Sludge around minute 12 and 24. I always loved those really slow and magma-like sections on Khaos and they are present here too. This whole record doesn’t dwell too long in any of those genres, but long enough to not seem erratic or out of place.

Charogne is an excellent follow-up to my beloved Khaos. Icare achieved to stay an epic force in the corner where Black Metal and Death Metal meet. Pick an occasion and get 45 minutes of non-skipable, ebbing and flowing Metal.