Iceburn
Hephaestus

At the beginning of the 90s, in the United States, there was a sort of "HardCore revival": some bands (often unjustly unknown to most) sowed the seeds of experimentation and fusion which later contributed (also) to the crossover and/or post-rock attitude that characterized the 90s.

One of the most representative bands of this revival (alongside acts like Quicksand, Fugazi, Inside Out, Bad Brains, and the politically charged Ebullition label) are Iceburn (later Iceburn Collective) led by guitarist Gentry Densley (yes, the same one from Ascend). In 1993 the power-trio released what, according to the writer, represents the band's definitive album: "Hephaestus".
It is a long concept (78 minutes!!!) divided into four suites ("Iron", "Brick", "Flyswatter" and "Blacksmith") themselves divided into 28 segments. Iceburn's music starts from a strongly hardcore/punk base, quickly veering towards fusion with avant-garde, jazz, psychedelic elements: an unusual cerebral and technical mix for bands of this musical extraction.
The compositions are therefore a mix of typical HC aggression, Sonic Youth-style noise, and long instrumental parts where progressive hints emerge. In some instances, the band produces a harder and faster sound as in "I" and "Only", while in tracks like "Swatter" they come close to the typical dirty and distorted sound of the grunge era. In other instances ("Swatted" and "Deconstruction"), their jazz and avant-garde soul comes to the forefront, and in some passages, there seems to be a kind of bastard cross between New York noise and the sounds of Primus. Densley's voice, moreover, very monotonous and "alien" to the typical assault of punk-derived genres, gives a more distinctly rock aura.

The style of Iceburn's musical proposal (very well executed, by the way) is therefore very heterogeneous and fractured, cerebral and complex, yet always hard-hitting (a characteristic later partly lost in subsequent releases): listening to this record (I remember hearing it for the first time during a RadioTwo broadcast hosted by the good C. Sorge... good times!!!) one can understand its seminal importance in the development of certain post-HC trends in the years to come.

"Defined: Iceburn - perhaps the most amazing band in the universe. In a sentence: Iceburn is the most punk band who doesn't play anything resembling punk music. Iceburn."