Straightforward and melodic with no-questions-asked mentality, Diablo is back with a strong yet in certain ways already a tad too familiar release. Though there's a saying 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it', I personally was hoping for a slightly more daring and musically adventurous metal release from this talented Finnish metal group. Nonetheless, don't get me wrong, their latest effort can be seen as a step forward from their previous album Mimic47... however, it's not the leap I was expecting them to take.

Music on Icaros relies strongly on familiar Diablo traits - heavy alluring riffs and sinuous hook-driven guitar leads backed with strong groovy beats, yet this time around the use of keyboards has been introduced to bring more atmospheric flavour to their compositions. This, for one, is a good change though still quite a sparse one and leaves much to wish for regarding diversity.

Production on Icaros is as strong as ever, and even musically the only weakness is perhaps the too steady quality without any clear distinctive highlights... Icaros is one of those albums that enjoys a lot of playing time in your CD player, yet the material won't have the same impact as before. All in all, Icaros is a good metal release - quite possibly the band's finest till date. The hooks are very catchy, yet they leave listener wanting more. Hopefully on their further releases Diablo dares to explore more new ground to expand their current fanbase and provide us a bit more inventive record.

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- MAGE (September 10th, 2008)



"Icaros" video:

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LINE-UP:
Nygård, Rainer: Rhythm Guitar & Vocals Utriainen, Marko: Lead Guitar Malmberg, Heikki: Drums Virtanen, Aadolf: Bass & Backing Vocals with Hietala, Johanna: Kantele in "Trail of Kings" Kovero, Esko: News Anchor in "Into the Sea" Salmela, Tommi "Tuple": Backing Vocals Ahola, Jarkko: Backing Vocals Niinimaa, Keijo: Backing Vocals Leinonen, Sakri: Backing Vocals Saikkonen, Tuomo: Backing Vocals Rauhala, Niko: Backing Vocals
Producer:	Oittinen, Utriainen & Nygård
Mixing by:	Oittinen, Samu
Mastering by:	Jussila, Mika

	TRACKLIST:
	01. Trail Of Kings 02. Living Dead Superstar 03. Bad Sign 04. Resign From Life 05. Icaros 06. Light Of The End 07. Chagrin 08. Through Difficulties To Defeat 09. Hammer 10. Into The Sea Length: 45:00