Black Ice is a project from two musicians from the postpunk band The Phantom Limbs. The music of The Phantom Limbs sounds pretty cheerful in comparison with the postpunk/deathrock that Black Ice plays. Their music might be darker but their sound is at times just as chaotic as that of The Phantom Limbs.
‘Broken Pieces’ for example is a hectic postpunk/deathrock song in the style of legendary bands as Sex Gang Children and Christian Death. Also the comparison with Cinema Strange and their modern version of postpunk comes to mind. There are also more quite songs on this EP such as ‘Eve E’ and ‘Rat’. These songs are reminiscent of early day Siouxie and The Banshees, for a great part due to the vocal sound of the singer.
Due to the clear reference to the old sound of the style of music Black Ice plays, and the fact that the band doesn’t really do anything new with it, their music can’t be called original. On the other hand the songs and the performance is very good. Although The Phantom Limbs play a more original version of postpunk I prefer Black Ice. I am sure that everybody who likes the typical old-skool pre gothic sound will enjoy this record and will agree with me. But if you like punk music it will probably be the other way round.
