Icon Of Sin is based around the vocals of Brazilian metal singer Raphael Mendes, who has made a name for himself for his remarkable vocal similarities to Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickenson. In fact listening to this album, it may be easy to forget the title for a moment and think you’re listening to something new from Maiden. If you’re waiting patiently for a new Maiden album and need something to fill the time, this would be well worth checking out. Musically, it even sounds like Maiden in places, as well as influences of WASP [post ’90s], Sabbath [w/ Dio], Rainbow….. Check out tracks like tracks like “Road Rage”, “Shadow Dance”, and “Clouds Over Gotham” to see what I mean. But, really – great playing, a solid metal album – even if much of it sounds familiar, plenty of really good songs. Favorite tracks being “Arcade Generation” and “Night Breed”. Will be interesting to hear more from Raphael Mendes.
Bio:
Frontiers Music Srl is excited to announce the signing of ICON OF SIN, a new project centered around the vocal talents of the popular Brazilian YouTube sensation Raphael Mendes. He is joined in the band by two other stellar Brazilian musicians, Sergio Mazul (SEMBLANT) and Marcelo Gelbcke (LANDFALL).
Raphael Mendes has become a very popular figure in the Youtube world due to his jaw dropping vocal covers. His recognition as one of the hottest new talents in metal started in 2016 when he was invited by guitarist Fabio Lima to record a YouTube video that wound up going viral. Encouraged by the reaction, Mendes launched his own YouTube channel to create more videos for fans to enjoy. As more and more fans around the world started to discover him, he was invited to join other musical projects, including Marius Danielsen’s “Legend Of Valley Doom Part 2”, which also featured Michael Kiske, Vinny Appice, Mark Boals, Michele Luppi, and Diego Valdez, among others.
One of the things that made Mendes’ reputation grow considerably happened earlier in 2020, when a video series called “What if Bruce Dickinson sang in other bands” was launched. With Mendes Dickinson-esque singing style being used to cover songs by Megadeth and more, these versions impressed fans worldwide and word quickly spread in the metal community. Collaborative versions are now being made with some emerging rock artists and also musicians from the global metal scene, such as drummer Aquiles Priester (ex-Angra, Primal Fear, W.A.S.P.).
Raphael’s videos ended up reaching the eyes and ears of Frontiers, a label known for signing and nurturing the most promising new names of the next generation of rock and metal. Frontiers has recently started to work more and more with South American based talent and had the thought to pair Raphael with two outstanding musicians of the Curitiba metal scene, both of whom have already unveiled their musical talents through the label: Sergio Mazul, singer of Semblant and Marcelo Gelbcke, guitarist of Landfall. While the music of their respective bands are quite dissimilar, both have a passion for traditional heavy metal and knew they could craft amazing music for Mendes to put his vocals to. They have already set to work with Raphael in the creation of a no-nonsense, straight ahead classic pure heavy metal album.
“Music is my passion, a way of life!” says Raphael Mendes. “It’s really been and continues to be a fantastic experience, working on the Icon Of Sin album. The songs are so powerful and it has awakened something in me that I haven’t felt for a long time from a heavy metal album!”
Tracklist:
Icon Of Sin
Road Rage
Shadow Dancer
Unholy Battleground
Nightbreed
Virtual Empire
Pandemic Euphoria
Clouds Over Gotham
Arcade Generation
Hagakure (Intro)
The Last Samurai
The Howling
Survival Instinct
Line-up:
Raphael Mendes – Vocals
Caio Vidal – Bass
Sol Perez – Guitar
Mateus Cantaleãno – Guitar
CJ Dubiella – Drums
Outsider Rock 