Sometimes, good things come to those who wait. Icarus was among the first generation of power metal bands in Peru, and for a while, it seemed like they had disappeared of the face off the earth. However, this year, nearly three decades after the band was established, the band finally released their debut album ‘Rising from the Ashes’. Founding guitarist Óscar Martín and singer Lucho Jíbaja talk about the recordings of the album, as well as the history of the band.

“Óscar had always been very hopeful about the idea of recording a full-length album”, Jíbaja says. “The band originally stopped around 2006. Because first, I started my own project called Jericho at the time, with some former Icarus members. Walter Crucifier from Metal Crucifier was also in this band, and we wanted to do a Helloween tribute. Then, our drummer moved to Brazil, so we had to stop for a while.

Also, the metal scene in Peru had changed. I don’t really know what happened, but nobody was really doing anything. So I emigrated to Canada, and that was the main reason the album didn’t come out at the time. Also, there was the other important factor: money. Nobody was able to afford studio time in those days. In the meantime, the guys continued with other singers, playing the old stuff.

Once I was able to go back to Peru after all my paperwork was taken care of here in Canada, we started to talk about getting back together, to finally complete the circle. During the pandemic, when everybody was working remotely, we did an online show, and that’s when we started talking about finishing the record. Because we had tried before, but there was always something that happened to slow things down: our drummer quitting, line-up changes… But we did it! Finally.”

Specific Instructions

Seven out of ten songs on ‘Rising from the Ashes’ appeared on Icarus’ first two demos from the early 2000s. Both Jíbaja and Martín confirm that the primary aim of the album was to share the band’s existing material with the world. “We can say that about 75 percent of the album is older material”, Jibaja nods. “There is some new stuff, but admittedly, the new stuff is mostly lyrics. Or we just finished some songs for the album that were never 100 percent finished the first time around.”

“Obviously, we have gained a great deal of experience through all these years”, Martín adds. “But the way the songs sound, he have not changed anything about that. They sound exactly how they were, and they will remain that way as we continue to play these songs. When it comes to the newer songs, there haven’t been any specific instructions on how they should be recorded, but we still attempted to capture the essence of those years.

Maybe for the future, we will be putting all the things that we have learned through the years into the songs, but we didn’t want to change too much about what was already there. It’s the same solos, the same melodies, the same vocal lines… Even the drum fills. Everything. The essence of Icarus is always within us. It’s in the voice of Lucho, and the way he sings the lyrics. And of course the band: the characteristic sound of the band comes from the way we play our instruments.”

Like a Maniac

“I formed the band in 1999”, Martín explains. “In the beginning, I wrote all the music and lyrics. But I will admit that the lyrics were quite bad. It didn’t work. It was then that I saw Lucho Jíbaja play a concert with his old band, and his voice just was a pleasant surprise to me. After I approached him, and he joined the band, he wrote new lyrics for the songs, and they were much better.”

“Also, when I saw Óscar for the first time, we were in different bands, sharing the stage”, Jíbaja clarifies. “We talked a little bit about our influences, and I noticed that the musicians he was working with at the time weren’t quite as skilled as those in the line-ups that were to come. Especially the drummer. He didn’t even have double kick pedals. At that time, Icarus sounded a little bit like Iron Maiden.

When Óscar put together a new line-up, he got an amazing drummer called César Gonzáles. He is now fronting a band called Mauser. He was a crazy drummer. So the first time we jammed together, having him there was a huge improvement. The fast bass drums: now it was power metal, that’s not heavy metal anymore. It was amazing.

I quit my other band, and I wanted to stay with these guys. At the time, I didn’t even know about the term power metal, believe it or not. It was more like: what’s the style that Stratovarius or a band like them plays? That’s power metal. Okay, power metal it is. We didn’t necessarily wanted Icarus to be a power metal band, but it just happened because César was playing those double bass drums like a maniac.”

Not the Same Feeling

“We had been huge fans of this type of music for several years”, Martín emphasizes. “At the time, power metal was the emerging style, and a range of new power metal bands were popping up. We all had the same taste in music. We made the music of that era. As a result of that, it was not difficult at all to get all the band members on the same page; we all shared the same influences.”

“For the Peruvian metal scene, however, we were apparently a huge surprise”, Jíbaja adds. “I remember people who visited our shows were staring at us, thinking: what is this? We were for sure one of the first bands to play this style in Peru. Also, we were the first prominent heavy metal band to sing in English. We were criticized quite a lot because of this. People thought we wanted to look like we were a European or American band or something.

We got a lot of crap for making that decision, but I think it worked. A lot of bands are now singing and writing lyrics in English. It was actually my decision to start writing lyrics in English, because I was always the one who wrote the lyrics. That’s what I did in the band I was in before Icarus as well, a band called Draken.

This is a choice I mostly made because most of my influences are English bands and European bands. I did sing in Spanish for a bit in a few bands, but I got bored with Spanish very quickly. It’s not the same feeling. To me, heavy metal has to be in English. There is a reason why Helloween doesn’t sing in German, or why Elegy doesn’t sing in Dutch.”

Mastering the Original Setlist

Martín and Jíbaja have seen the Peruvian metal scene change significantly through the years. “In the beginning, it was not so difficult to find places to play”, Martín says. “When we had just started out, we were playing at various small, local events. But never in the capital. The Peruvian metal scene was a lot stronger in those days, I think. There were at the very least a lot of metal bands from Peru.

These days, the shows are bigger, and there are more international bands coming to Peru, but there is no place for Peruvian bands, unfortunately. Bands like Iron Maiden or Metallica come to the country, but no one is booking Peruvian bands to play with them. In fact, it is more common to book punk bands or commercial rock bands to open the show. It’s kind of difficult now for bands from Peru itself.”

However, Icarus has serious ambitions to play live again. “For sure”, Martín exclaims. “And now that we have mastered our original setlist again, we have been offered opening slots for various concerts that will be taking place shortly. It’s awesome that we even get considered for opening these shows. I suspect we have some fans who will be happy that they can finally see the show they have been waiting for for so many years.”

“There are offers”, Jíbaja confirms. “For example: Helloween will be playing in Lima at the end of this year. There are some rumors that maybe we could be approached to open the show. There have actually been a lot of offers to play in various cities in Peru, but it is kind of difficult to accept all the gigs, because we are spread out quite a bit. It’s going to be a challenge for us, because I am very far from Peru. But if something happens, I will certainly do everything within my power to be there.”

Whatever Fits the Compositions

During the conversation, Martín and Jíbaja dropped multiple hints that there is new Icarus material being worked on. “Óscar told me he has a lot of material”, Jíbaja smiles. “I need to check it out, because I have to write lyrics for them. But he has said the songs are ready to have lyrics written for them. Let’s see what will happen!”

“Any new material will still have the essence of Icarus”, Martín assures. “The melodies will be very elegant, very melodic. We will always hang on to the sound that we like. And apart from that: whatever fits the compositions. I love playing guitar harmonies. Just like Jesús Parra, our other guitarist. The intensity, the passion that Icarus is known for will definitely be there in the new material as well.”

“I don’t know what to expect, but I think it’s going to be awesome”, Jíbaja says. “I still remember the days when Óscar used to give me cassettes so I could work on the lyrics. I used to write my lyrics at work, because I used to work as a cashier in a museum. Very boring job. I sat there with my walkman, and then after that, at 5PM, I went to Óscar’s house, and we listened to my ideas together. Because I used to sing the lyrics for him, and he said: hey, that’s awesome, let’s do it!”