Icarus Witch is back blazing with ‘Goodbye Cruel World’
The sixth album from Icarus Witch may be called “Goodbye Cruel World,” but it’s more like a big “Hello, again” from the Pittsburgh metal band.
Icarus Witch, formed in 2003, established itself as a founding member of the “New Wave of Traditional Metal,” according to Metal Hammer U.K. Magazine, with a sound in the classic vein of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Queensryche. Starting in 2005, the band released four albums and toured with Y&T, Trouble, White Wizzard and former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno, while also opening for Heaven and Hell at one of Ronnie James Dio’s final performances.
Then, after 2012’s “RISE,” the Witch went quiet.
“I honestly think the band had hit a wall,” said bassist Jason Myers. “Every relationship is susceptible to a slump. Sometimes you need to step back and re-examine why you’re still keeping a band alive, especially when you’re in a niche as small as ours and the music industry is shrinking around you.”
“We were on the road for a long time,” added guitarist Quinn Lukas. “It definitely takes its toll. It already did when we we doing the ‘RISE’ album.”
Mr. Myers, from Bethel Park, moved, to Salem, Mass., for a year, he said, “to forget about the business and reconnect with the spirituality that inspired me to form this band in the first place” — that being his lifelong fascination and study of witchcraft.
Mr. Lukas worked on other things, including projects with Guns N’ Roses producer Mike Clink.
They continued to work on song ideas, gravitating always to the style of classic metal that sparked them from the start.
“Quinn and I both grew up with older brothers who were bringing the Maiden, Priest, Dio, Sabbath and Queensryche albums home and telling us tales of the mythical early ‘80s concerts at the Igloo,” the bassist said.
“I remember when my brother put Iron Maiden’s ‘Live After Death’ on for the first time my jaw hit the floor,” Mr. Lukas said.
When they went to reignite Icarus Witch for the new material, they hit a roadblock. Their second guitarist and producer, Dave Watson, had joined Argus and was busy traveling with his job with the WWE, and singer Christopher Shaner and Justin Walker were off to other bands and life adventures as well.
The solution was a powerful new vocalist in Andrew D’Cagna, known for his work in Brimstone Coven and Ironflame, along with running the Hot Rod Tattooing & Body Piercing shop in Martins Ferry, Ohio.
“Andrew was a breath of fresh air in a otherwise stagnant genre,” Mr. Myers said. “His work ethic is something special in itself. The guy is a physical phenomenon. He possesses something very special and organic that I love.”
Mr. Lukas was blown away by how the new singer sprinkled his own “magic dust” on the ideas.
“It’s funny because I’ve read multiple early reviews that draw comparisons to Maiden, Priest and Queensryche, but when I heard Andrew’s voice on our songs I immediately felt more of a classic Kansas or early Rainbow vibe.
It wasn’t until after we started talking more that he told me about his love of Styx and Rush, which makes sense in hindsight when you listen to some of the harmony and phrasing choices.”
They enlisted Jon Rice (Skeletonwitch, Job For A Cowboy) to drum on the sessions with engineer Shane Mayer (Deathwhite, Post Mortal Possession) at Cerebral Audio. Grammy-winning producer Neil Kernon (Kansas, Queensryche, Dokken, Judas Priest) did the preproduction, Atlanta’s Brad Cox did the mixing and Erik Martensson (Eclipse) mastered it in Sweden.
“Quinn and I sorta splurged this time,” Mr. Myers said.
All that effort and expense is evident on the 10-track “Goodbye Cruel World,” out Friday on Cleopatra Records, which delivers the same kind of thunderous playing, songcraft and studio sheen they heard in their metal idols.
“It’s a bigger-sounding album than we’ve ever created,” the bassist said. “Because we took a breather instead of rushing to feed the beast, this release has a renewed sense of energy.”