A far cry from the darkly mesmerizing dread of Dead Magic, Anna pivots her devilish leanings to ancestral charms, her voice finding its Folkish power in warmer territory. Continuing with lengthy temporal progressions that gradually groan and smother, her broody organ drones still evoke esoteric spirits as new musical ideas gently steer its destination away from the pale. That descent into unwinding madness always lingers but the plunge evaded, as some of these numbers flirt with a stern unease.
As a dense record of seventy two minutes, no song hurries itself. Iconoclasts meddles through its ideas, ruminating on notions, soaking in its own atmosphere. So often do passing moments linger on Anna's witching voice. Tribal percussion drifts in and out of focus around heaving walls of sound that assemble from humble origins, the string sections often leading charge. Its not until Stardust that we get a standout track.
Kicking off with a persistent rolling drum loop, it powers the core driving baseline. Instruments gradually chime in as organs, synths and Anna's luminous voice swell around this central pounding notion. The break and return of its main riff towards its conclusion plays a gratifying one. This architecture is sorely lacking throughout the rest of the record as other songs drift and linger. This one feels purposeful, with direction, still carrying the organic feel all these numbers flow with.
Struggle With The Beast is another highlight. Its jolting, animated jazzy Saxophone dances with the devil on the records darkest track. That however is just two standouts among Iconoclasts twelve which stokes an indulgent atmosphere for one to soak in its ambience, yet its flavor rarely find the rapture to whip one into its spell. I'm left a bit bewildered by how such beautifully inspired music doesn't quite strike the nerve without that dark focal point. This chemistry isn't quite attuned to more worldly leanings.
Rating: 6/10