Michael Sweet has a busy year. He released his solo album ‘The Master Plan’ in April, and the new Stryper album ‘Throne of Thorns’ is slated for release in late September. The fact that there is a second Iconic album in the middle of those is something that took me by surprise when it was first announced. One of the more interesting Frontiers supergroups, Iconic combines the talents of multiple melodic hard rock veterans – 60 percent of the band played in Whitesnake at some point – with the vocal prowess of Inglorious singer Nathan James. That is no different on ‘II’.

Having said that, ‘II’ isn’t necessarily cut from the same cloth as the 2022 debut ‘Second Skin’. For one, Alessandro Del Vecchio is no longer Frontiers’ in-house producer, meaning that he is not part of the songwriting and production team for ‘II’ either, his place taken by Secret Sphere main man Aldo Lonobile and his former bandmate Marco Pastorino. While the main ingredients have not changed, they are mixed in a slightly different way. Most obviously, there are no duets between James and Sweet on ‘II’, which ultimately gives the album a flavor that differs significantly from that of its predecessor.

Fortunately, there is still plenty of space for Sweet’s excellent guitar work on ‘II’, as well as that of his colleague Joel Hoekstra. The songs are still vehicles for James to soar over with his powerful, slightly raspy vocals, but there are huge guitar arrangements galore, and songs like ‘S.O.S.’, ‘Valley of Lost Souls’ and ‘Written in the Stars’ have fairly extensive, fiery guitar solo sections where Hoekstra and Sweet can really let loose. Their riffs are nothing too complicated, but a bit more involved than on most AOR albums; a big part of why ‘II’ has some grit to it.

Another surprise is the fact that there are no full-on ballads on ‘II’, which I always thought was customary for the style. There are three of these Swedish-style semi-ballads that have the tempo and the vibe of of a ballad in ‘Tears Keep On Falling’, closing track ‘Heart of Stone’, and the downright excellent ‘Far Away’, but the distorted guitars and Tommy Aldridge’s hard-hitting drumming are too prominent on those to take the wind out of the album’s sails. Also, ‘All I Want’ has a slight modern hard rock vibe that feels like a nice departure without deviating too much from the album’s overall sound.

My only gripe with ‘II’ is that the debut felt a bit more varied when it comes to tempos. ‘II’ has a very nice flow, but every song is mid-tempo, and many of them a fairly similar pace. Also, without Sweet’s cleaner vocals foiling James’, Iconic inches ever closer to Inglorious’ sound. Not that that’s a problem, but it would be nice to have the identities of the bands further apart. However, let’s judge ‘II’ for what it is: a powerful melodic hard rock album full of amazing guitar work, even better vocals, and catchy songs. Can’t go wrong with that.

Recommended tracks: ‘S.O.S.’, ‘Far Away’, ‘Valley of Lost Souls’