Let the record show that I am a HUGE Whitesnake fan. More specifically, I’m a huge fan of their blockbuster ’87 self titled album. Everything about that album, the production, the songwriting, the musicianship, and so forth, is absolute perfection; perfection that really hasn’t been touched since, at least within the context of Whitesnake. Sure, Slip of the Tongue (1989) was a respectable follow up with its noteworthy moments (“Wings of the Storm” anyone?). Subsequent Whitesnake albums have followed suit, boasting handful of killer cuts amongst a sea of mediocrity.
What happened? Well, John Sykes’ firing happened, which resulted in Blue Murder’s brilliant self titled debut. Had THAT been the follow up to Whitesnake as opposed to Slip of the Tongue, I’m 100% certain they would’ve had a bigger one-two punch than Def Leppard had with Pyromania (1983) and Hysteria (1987). Considering David Coverdale is currently out on Whitesnake’s farewell tour and Sykes is M.I.A., I had all but given up on ever hearing an over the top arena metal album such as this ever again. That is until the formation of Iconic.
Featuring 3 Whitesnake members past and present (drummer Tommy Aldridge, bassist Marco Mendoza, and guitarist Joel Hoekstra), as well as Stryper frontman Michael Sweet and Coverdale circa ’87 doppelganger Nathan James, Iconic is the latest in a long line of Frontiers supergroup creations. The mission was simple: Make an album that sounded as close as sonically possible to Whitesnake. Well that mission has been accomplished with their debut album, Second Skin. From the powerful opener that is “Fast as You Can”, I knew I was in for an album of massive riffs, soaring solos, and not one, but two killer vocalists. James and Sweet trade parts throughout in what can only be described as if Glenn Hughes had joined Whitesnake.
Musically speaking, Second Skin stays faithful to the classic 80s sound. There’s no repetitive chug riffs, weak vocals, over compressed bullshit, or any other tropes that no self respecting old schooler enjoys. Why these classic bands continue to incorporate them into their sound I don’t know, but that’s another mystery for another day. What I do know is that whether it be scorching hot, Purple tinged metal (“Second Skin”, “Nowhere to Run”, “It Ain’t Over”) or sultry, swaggering hard rock (“Ready for Your Love”, “All About”), Second Skin drives the retro formula home without coming off as contrived. I personally could have done without so many ballads (I counted 5), but even those are of a passionate and powerful (ahem) nature, especially the closing “Enough of Your Love”.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Second Skin is one of the strongest Frontiers releases of the year thus far, and one of the strongest classic metal releases of the year thus far for that matter. Iconic is a supergroup who is truly super, certainly not resting on their laurels and phoning it in because of their past output. I just hope if they decided to record a follow up that it has more in common with Blue Murder than Slip of the Tongue.
8 out of 10
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
For fans of: Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Blue Murder