- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Aug 14, 2013The Icarus Line’s sixth album is scarred, clandestine and alluring, much like meeting a stranger who has the capabilities to turn you on--or turn you off, dead.
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Jul 17, 2013It is what it is: a passionate, purposeful and wonderfully presented collection of combustive rock songs.
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Jul 15, 2013Slave Vows is--easily the finest guitar album The Icarus Line have produced since Aaron North precariously sprinted across a row of trembling amps to crash out the window and join Nine Inch Nails in 2005.
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Kerrang!Aug 14, 2013An album which walks the wild side with instinctive ease and righteous fury. [13 Jul 2013, p.54]
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MojoJul 15, 2013Heroic riffing and Joe Cardamone's raw yodel ensure they never disappoint. [Aug 2013, p.98]
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Jul 15, 2013There’s too much spirit in this cocktail for the mixer to spoil it.
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Jul 29, 2013They’ve kept those colours nailed firmly to the mast, and never more so than on ‘No Money Music’, an aptly named track that adopts the aural scare tactics of Suicide’s ‘Frankie Teardrop’.
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Aug 30, 2013At 45 minutes it's shorter than Penance Soiree, but lacks its concision and punch, at times wading a little too deeply into the indulgent waters of burdened, discordant blooze.
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Jul 17, 2013An eminently powerful work of rock ‘n’ roll from start to finish, Slave Vows hasn’t saved the soul of rock music, but it sure as hell has revitalized it.
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Aug 16, 2013It is hardcore, a visceral distillation of fury that aims to wound.
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Jul 24, 2013What the album lacks in refinement and songwriting polish, it gains in the unflagging energy these tunes emanate.
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Jul 15, 2013Cardamone’s crew are at their peak when moving between the simmering heat and the fireball, and these drawn-out song structures give them more space than ever to explore the tension between nervy build-up and cathartic release.
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Aug 1, 2013Slave Vows, then, is a masterpiece, its black-hearted explosions and sordid vibes coming from a darker place than most of those pantomiming their way through rock & roll. But while there’s bleakness here, there’s also that sulphurous sound of resistance, of high drama at very real stakes.
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UncutSep 5, 2013Six albums in and The Icarus Line remain terrifying, riding a tsunami of malevolent noise, sweat and havoc while producing some of the most intense and exceptional rock music around. [Oct 2013, p.70]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 4
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Mixed: 1 out of 4
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Negative: 0 out of 4
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Aug 20, 2013