Lords of Black's 'Icons of the New Days' - Album Review

Despite containing the current Rainbow frontman among their ranks, the Spanish progressive metal band Lords of Black are still relatively unknown. Having Ronnie Romero as their singer, who occasionally now also treads the boards with the legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore when the latter decides he fancies picking up his Strat again for a few nostalgia-laced Rainbow shows, certainly helped Lords of Black to gain some fans back in 2015 when it was announced that Rainbow was being revived with a new line-up; but it seems Lords of Black have not really been able to convert this association into any meaningful momentum. Fairly minimal touring certainly will not have helped, but I feel that the main issue with Lords of Black is, fundamentally, their songs. The band's core three members - Romero, guitarist and songwriter Tony Hernando, and drummer Andy C. - are all excellent musicians, but there are so many bands that do this brand of metal much better. As an example I recently picked up an album called Distant is the Sun by the Australian band Vanishing Point on the recommendation of a friend, and found my current solitary to it to be much more memorable than anything Lords of Black have released so far. I could name other bands here too, but that would just be labouring the point - which is, sadly, that Lords of Black are just not that memorable. That is not to say that they are a bad band however, because they are not. Both the band's 2014 self-titled debut album and 2016's II (which I reviewed here) had their moments and contained some good songs. The former in particular is a pretty strong effort, and is certainly worth the time of any self-respecting prog/power metal fan. Two years on from II and Lords of Black have attempted to up their game with the lengthy Icons of the New Days, their second album to be released by the Italian label Frontiers Records. Frontiers' interest in Lords of Black is clearly based around Romero's voice, and fame as Rainbow's current frontman, as he seems to be their go-to singer for their project bands that occupy the heavier end of the melodic rock/metal spectrum (The Ferrymen, CoreLeoni, Nozomu Wakai's Destina, etc.). The irony in this however is that Romero seems to have little to do with Lords of Black's direction. It seems to be Hernando's band as he is credited with writing almost the entirety of Icons of the New Days single handedly; as well as playing all of the guitars, bass guitars, and the majority of the keyboards. Hernando is certainly the album's star, with plenty of excellent guitar solos throughout, while Romero's vocal performance is much less refined than anything he has done with Rainbow. Despite its length Icons of the New Days is similar to Lords of Black's previous two albums, but nothing is gained from the extra run time. In fact, the bloated nature of this album actually ends up hurting it as it is almost certainly about 20 minutes too long. There are good songs here, but they are often so buried by filler that it can be hard to see the wood for the trees.

Despite this however, the album opens up in a fairly strong fashion with three powerful tracks in a row. World Gone Mad is the first, and it boasts a memorable riff that has hypnotic, Michael Schenker-esque, qualities despite the piece's overall heaviness. The heavier intro gives way to a chugging verse that sees Romero laying down a powerful vocal performance over a simple musical backing - something which continues into the song's melodic chorus. A simple keyboard backing helps the song to create a strong atmosphere, but musically it is always Hernando's guitar that dominates despite sometimes simply providing a bed for the vocals. He gets to shine part-way through the piece however with a great neo-classical guitar solo that builds up slowly over some marching drums to climax in a flurry of arpeggios that rivals the great Yngwie Malmsteen's signature style. The album's title track follows and it is the first of two songs co-written by drummer Andy C., who's writing style seems to always be focused around create a strong atmosphere. As a result, the keyboards take on a slightly more prominent role, with a silky synth riff sitting behind the chugging. industrial guitar rhythms that drive everything. The verses here have a very staccato feel to them, with Romero's vocals taking on a deeper, semi-whispered tone which works well. The chorus, while not exactly the world-beater, is still powerful and sees Romero pushing his voice a little to contrast with the more reserved verse delivery. The thing that makes this song as effective as it is however is the atmosphere it creates, which is down to Andy C.'s synth arrangements (he is responsible for the keyboards on the songs he co-wrote) and the suitably spacey guitar solo that comes out of nowhere towards the end. Andy C.'s second and final composition, In a Place Like This, follows and continues the atmospheric feel of the previous piece with trippy electronics and a dense wall of guitars. An aggressive synth riff fills the verses, which forms the perfect backing for Romero's gritty vocal display. Romero really shines throughout this song, and shows why Ritchie Blackmore chose him to front a reformed version of Rainbow. The slightly more melodic chorus, with soaring pianos mixed into the crushing guitar rhythms, shows Romero channelling his inner Ronnie James Dio to great, dramatic effect. Sadly however, the album rarely reaches the height of these opening three songs again. When a Hero Takes a Fall is a solid enough piece though, and ups the pace compared to anything heard on the album so far. Andy C.'s powerful drumming drives the piece, and an overwrought vocal performance helps to add some drama. The chorus here is pretty good, and shows the band can still operate at higher tempos. While not as good as the previous three songs, it is still an enjoyable piece of metal that creates a strong energy but lacks the atmospherics that were used so effectively previously.

Forevermore is another passable piece, with a bouncy opening melodies complete with driving synths, and a slightly spooky verse with some choppy double bass drumming and chiming clean guitars mixed into the background behind the tougher rhythms to help create an atmosphere. My main issue with the song however is the lack of a decent chorus. The song seems to build up towards one, but it never really materialises which is a shame. What passes as a chorus is overlong and without the anthemic melodies that it needs, which makes the song feel like one long piece without any sense of structure. That said however, there is a really good guitar solo from Hernando that shows him to be an extremely competent player. The Way I'll Remember is better however, and shows more of a depth of songwriting with a piano intro and a stronger sense of melody throughout. Despite the slower intro, the song is not a ballad but instead is a powerful piece of power metal that features one of the album's best choruses and a great riff. I like the fact that the piano from the intro is used throughout, which helps to add atmosphere when needed. Prog/power bands should use keyboards in my opinion as they really help to diversify the sound. This song is a great example of that, and is one of the few songs here that matches up to the quality of the opening trio. The closing classical guitar outro only adds to the song's depth, and shows what the band can achieve if they really put their minds to it. Fallin' is a bit of a smoother song, with a strangely floaty verse and a fairly light feel overall. While not a ballad, it is certainly the least heavy of the album's songs up to this point and it helps to provide a bit of a chance of pace - despite some pretty tough guitar rhythms at times. Despite this however the song's melodies fail to take hold as much as they should. The chorus is pretty workmanlike, especially when compared to the stadium-filling one that the previous song was built around. King's Reborn that follows however is one of the album's real low points for me. At nearly eight minutes long, it is much longer than necessary and it lacks any real standout melodies. The thing about the song that annoys me the most however is the song's main riff, which is just a blantant rip off of Dio's Holy Diver. It is almost a note-for-note copy which strikes me as extremely lazy, especially when Hernando has displayed on this album, and on the band's previous two efforts, that he is a more than capable riff writer. There is also something about Romero's vocals that grates with me. I am a big fan of his voice, especially at both of the Rainbow shows I have been to, but here he seems to be singing slightly higher than his usual style which does not sound right. It sounds overdone, and sadly a little hard on the ears. His pronunciation seems quite lazy here too, which is not often the case with him, but the song might as well be called 'King's Reburn'!

Long Way to Go is better, and picks up the pace for a faster piece of heavy power metal that sees the band letting their hair down for a fairly powerful romp. Romero is back to his best vocally here, with a gritty performance that puts the strange delivery of the last song to the back of the listeners mind. He spits out the verse lyrics with real venom, which suits the driving guitar riff backing. Andy C. lets rip during the choruses, with a punchy fast beat that allows Romero to unleash some mean low-pitched screams - à la Jørn Lande - to add some real gravity to the song. Hernando's guitar solo is great too, and shows him shredding his way to the finish line to fit in with the song's overall speed. The Edge of Darkness is a groove-based mid-paced offering which returns the keyboards to a more prominent position again which helps to provide some contrast between between the tough guitar sounds as the more melodic synths double up with the main riff and add a counter melody to some of the tough instrumental sections. Apart from some interesting riffs however, the song does not really offer too much else. The chorus features more of Romero's strange, annoying higher-pitched vocals that again grate with me. The melodies throughout do not really grab hold anyway, so that ensures the song does not really stick in the memory. Wait No Prayers for the Dying is the album's penultimate track, and it ups the pace again which creates some energy. I cannot believe that anyone at the record label did not pick up the fact that the song's title makes no sense however. I understand that English is not any of the members of Lords of Black's first language, but having a title like Wait No Prayers for the Dying on the back of your CD case just makes the album look unprofessional. This, along with some of the pronunciation issues encountered earlier on in the album, shows that Lords of Black need to tighten some of the real basics up, and someone at Frontiers Records needs to be working with them in this regard. This is by no means an issue exclusive to Lords of Black however, and lots of the bands I listen to have singers that occasionally pronounce words in somewhat hilarious ways, but to have song titles that have me double checking the CD booklet to make sure iTunes' Gracenote song metadata database has not made a mistake is not a good sign! All I Have Left is the album's last song, and the band's longest song to date, clocking in at over eleven minutes. Despite its length, it is a pretty strong song that mixes faster and slower sections together well to create a coherent and interesting piece of prog metal. Unsurprisingly there are a lot of instrumental sections here, and this gives Hernando a chance to really let rip with his guitar. There are plenty of strong riffs here, and some of the guitar solos are very good indeed - with some hooky folky melodies thrown in to help keep things interesting. Romero shines when he gets to sing too, but for me this is Hernando's song as his diverse and powerful guitar playing helps to bring the album to a close. Overall, I think it is fair to say that Icons of the New Days is a flawed album - but one that contains its share of strong moments. Two of my favourite songs here were co-written by Andy C., so I would like to see Hernando collaborating with him more on the band's future albums. It could have also done with a couple of slower songs to really help shake the pace up a bit - which could have taken the place of the some of the more dreary offerings Icons of the New Days makes.

The album was released on 11th May 2018 via Frontiers Records. Below is the band's promotional video for World Gone Mad.