Icons Of Filth: Time Of The Signs
(Grow Your Own)
LP | CD | DL
Out Now
A searing razor sharp guitar and serrated, throaty vocals front the latest album from Cardiff’s Icons Of Filth. It clearly holds some of the DNA of the band’s seminal 1980s output but is still fresh says Nathan Brown.
One of the joys of first opening a Grow Your Own album is the extras that tumble out. In this case there’s a patch, a postcard and a poster as well as the lyric sheet, not forgetting the 12 inch slab of vinyl itself. The cover artwork in this case is provided by the band’s long term collaborator, Squeal (R.I.P.).
Icons Of Filth were at the forefront of anarcho-punk in the mid 80s, closely associated with Conflict, on whose Mortarhate label they released a tape, 2 of their 3 EPs and the excoriating Onward Christian Soldiers album. That album in particular made them one of my favourite bands, and I used to proudly sport an Icons t-shirt. A reformation in 2001, their 2nd album Nostradamnedus and a slew of gigs saw them on a trajectory which was cut short by the tragic death of singer Stig in 2004. They reformed again in 2014. Icons Of Filth continuing without Stig is still a sore subject for some people I know (discussed in our review of the 2021 Plight mini-album) but that ship has sailed.
You can hear characteristic Icons Of Filth tunes and minor chord progressions in the riffing but this isn’t a rehash of the band’s 1980s output because so much of the band’s sound was wrapped up in Stig’s vocals. Despite a different vocal sound, most of the songs are still clearly recognisable as being from the stable of “classic” Icons Of Filth – there are some really cracking tunes on here.
Right from the get go, Daffy’s searing razor sharp guitar is up front on this recording, driving the tunes with a relentless chainsaw attack. It’s shored up by bottom end foundations and drones from Fish on the bass while Dan’s persistent drumming keeps up a galloping momentum. Lance’s vocals have a serrated, throaty, twisted dynamic frequently sounding exasperated and almost rising to a screech at times. The vocals give the breakneck attack a touch of an 80s US hardcore sound while not taking this too far from the original Icons sound. This is going to appeal to fans of crust punk and fast anarcho alike. Standing aside slightly from the rest of the songs, the curious bobbling triptych of I’m Your Ideology 1.0, I’m Your Ideology 0.9 and I’m Your Ideology 0.3 (each of them 36 seconds long!) drop in across the album and are reminiscent of later period Rudimentary Peni.
Listen to Civil Disservice by Icons Of Filth
Lyrically this band are still singing about issues that concerned them in the past. The way animals are abused in factory farms, war, pollution of the environment, unbridled nationalism, the government and politicians were staples for Icons Of Filth. Killing For Pleasure is a particular stand out song with its catchy chorus and clear animal rights message:
“You can kill for taste
you can kill for leisure
It’s all the same
as killing for pleasure”
Many of the songs on this release are essentially about the capitalist system and the many ways it impacts daily life, which arguably is more heightened and obvious than it was 40 years ago as capitalism eats itself. The endemic corruption, what work does to you, the way we are targeted as a market – they are all symptoms of the wider malaise. As they put it in Totally Fucked:
“Homogenous, unhealthy, wholly corrupt
A financial system that is totally fucked”
This is an urgent album that demands your attention and grows on you with every listen with tunes that hook into your brain.
You’ll be able to catch Icons Of Filth live at the Grow Your Own Records festival in Hastings on 7th November.
Available from Grow Your Own
Icons Of Filth website and Facebook
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Words by Nathan Brown. You can read more from Nathan on his Louder Than War archive over here.
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