ICARUS WITCH On Tour With PAUL DI'ANNO Now; Album Release Date Nears

January 27, 2010, 14 years ago

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Pittsburgh's masters of traditional metal ICARUS WITCH are on the road right now alongside original IRON MAIDEN vocalist PAUL DI'ANNO.

Not only are Icarus Witch direct support for the full tour, the band are also acting as Di'Anno's backing band, taking on double-duty every night of the tour, which hits NYC tonight.

Tour dates:

January

27 - B.B. King Blues Club - New York, NY

28 - The Reverb - Toronto, ON
29 - The Chance - Poughkeepsie, NY
30 - Gil’s Bar And Grill - Virginia Beach, VA
31 - Jaxx Nigthclub - Springfield, VA

February

1 - Bogies - Albany, NY
4 - Volume 11 Tavern - Raleigh, NC
5 - Crazy Marlin’s - Panama City Beach, FL
6 - The Pit (Brewster’s) - Jacksonville, FL
7 - Senor Frogs - San Juan, PR
8 - Limelight - Nashville, TN
9 - Vino’s Brewpub - Little Rock, AR
10 - Red Eyed Fly - Austin, TX
11 - Smokin Aces - Mission, TX
12 - Zeros Hard Rock Club - Corpus Christi, TX
13 - Backstage Lounge - San Antonio, TX
14 - The Loft at The Palladium - Dallas, TX
17 - Brixton - Redondo Beach, CA
18 - New Oasis - Sparks, NV
19 - Ramona Mainstage - Ramona, CA
20 - Galaxy Theater - Santa Ana, CA
21 - Voodoo Lounge - San Jose, CA
25 - Reggies Rock Club - Chicago, IL
26 - Radmaker’s Rock n Roll Tavern - Tolono, IL
27 - Emerald Theater - Mt. Clemens, MI
28 - Station 4 - St. Paul, MN
29 - Warriors of Metal III Open Air Fest - Chillicothe, Ohio

Icarus Witch have completed their third full-length album, entitled Draw Down The Moon which is to be released February 9th through Cleopatra Records/Koch Distribution. The nine-track release sees the band in a more mature, yet increasingly aggressive song writing mode, stripped of the extraneous bells and whistles of synths and samples and just straight-up rocking out.

Following is the official press release for Draw Down The Moon:

The third full length CD (fourth overall) from traditional metal stalwarts Icarus Witch, mysteriously entitled Draw Down The Moon, will be released February 9th, 2010 through Cleopatra Records / Koch Distribution. The band was recently described as having a "Heavy influence of IRON MAIDEN combined with good old fashioned hard/rock metal production and great musicianship" by Don Jamison, host of VH1 Classic's That Metal Show. Perhaps this assessment helped land the boys the opening slot on original Maiden crooner, Paul DiAnno's first American tour in over 15 years, commencing this January 27 in NYC.

Britain's prestigious Metal Hammer magazine recently drafted Icarus Witch for both their cover mount compilation CD as well as an interview on their feature about the explosive rise of traditional metal with the younger generation of bands, referring to the Witch as "One of the best new bands to take up the NWOTM (New Wave of Traditiona Metal) standard and carry it triumphantly into the future. With such accolades, the pressure is mounting for the group to top their previous efforts, a feat which has been handily accomplished by the creation of this new album, their first since 2007's critically acclaimed Songs For The Lost.

With a few years of regional headline touring under their belt as well as supporting everyone from HEAVEN & HELL and COHEED & CAMBRIA to 3 INCHES OF BLOOD and TROUBLE on the road, the boys honed their live chops and discovered the formula for what translates to a frenzied crowd and what passages are better left for the headphones. The end result is a nine song battle cry called Draw Down The Moon which sees the band in a more mature, yet increasingly aggressive song writing mode, stripped of the extraneous bells and whistles of synths & samples. This is a back-to-basics, classic metal album with a raw, in-your-face production (once again with Eric Klinger at the controls) that owes as much to '70s Marshall overdrive and gothic tales of yore, as it does the '80s flash and modern metal trappings that have become de rigueur in this burgeoning scene Icarus Witch is alleged to have helped establish. Apparently the time machine has been set to reverse, and once you dig your teeth into the muscular framework of this future occult rock classic, you will forget about eras, genre tags and hype, and realize what truly matters most...this band knows how to fucking ROCK!

The tracklist for Draw Down The Moon is as follows. Audio samples can be found here, the cover art is at left (click to enlarge).

'Black Candles'

'Aquarius Rising'

'Reap What You Sow'

'Dying Eyes'

'Draw Down The Moon'

'Serpent In The Garden'

'Funeral Wine'

'Haunting Visions'

'The Ripper'


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