Our third French band in a week sees us discover the alternative metal sound of Ice Chemicals. The Parisian collective have honed a style that plays with elements of metalcore, melodeath and neo metal and utilises dual male and female vocals.
The quintet first started out when guitarist Steph Delalande decided to start a modern metalcore band with his buddy Kevin Rodenas. The duo composed and recorded an instrumental demo that set the base for the Ice Chemicals identity that was to come. Kevin soon left and Steph built out the project with Jeff Chrétien and Anaïs aka Tentaskull Nana (vocals), Alex Adler (drums) and Jérôme Roudier (bass), which saw the band transform the demo into debut EP Primal and debut album Alchemy, which was released in December.
On the sound they’ve honed over the last few years, Jeff told us: “It has been said that we don’t sound like anyone, so it is quite a challenge to put a label on it. That’s why we use ‘alternative metal,’ which says both a lot and nothing!
“The alternance between the two voices can be compared to Lacuna Coil. Instrumentally, it’s closer to modern metalcore, but mixed with some melodeath and neo metal… Again, we tried many things. Some people also described some vibe similarities with 90s bands such as early The Gathering.”
As mentioned, our latest taste of this is their debut album Alchemy, on which Jeff told us: “Working on the last three songs (the ones in addition to the first four from Primal) was difficult , because we had to find a balance between what each member imagined and the sound engineer’s work. So when we finally released Alchemy, it was quite liberating. And of course, seeing our production being now ‘official’ on all streaming platforms makes it real and eternal, you know ? So it also feels like an accomplishment.
“Regarding the reception, we can say it is a good start. We got people from all five continents listening to us, and already more than 20k views on our YouTube channel. As a young independent band from what we call the ’emerging scene,’ that’s quite good, and we are really proud to see our music go out in the world. We were also very satisfied with the reviews we got, which were all very positive. Anyone discovering us should expect to be surprised, as the album has a lot of variety in it. We wanted to try things as they came.”
As Jeff alluded to, Alchemy includes the four tracks from their EP – second track When Reason Collapse and the final three Crystal, Primal and New Horizon – plus four new tracks. It opens up in heavy fashion with a lively technical riff introducing Legacy, before the dual vocals take over, then spoken vocals lead into a big atmospheric chorus. More spoken vocals are joined by Anaïs’ high vocals, and another chorus drops into chunky guitars, which builds with gradually intensifying vocals. Check it out in the video here:
We particularly enjoy I’m Your God, which opens up with heavy guitars feeding into doomy, fast-paced guitars and drums under Jeff’s slightly terrifying vocals. It soon explodes into a wild chorus led by Anaïs’ engaging vocals supported by powerful blastbeat drums. A second chorus drops into mellow string instruments, which feed into a delicious guitar solo before a heavy conclusion. Check it out in the stream here:
The album is packed with variety, including Evolved effortlessly flowing between really cool variations of sounds, rhythms and styles, the more laid-back Crystal, and Primal featuring crushing riffs and brutal vocals contrasted by an almost fairytale like high-pitched chorus. The album goes out in style with the delicious opening riff to the engaging final track New Horizon.
Ice Chemicals’ members bring a mixture of influences to the table, but their teenage years during metal’s 2000s golden age has certainly been a key inspiration. As Jeff explains: “It was very common to have metal bands on movie soundtracks like Matrix, Resident Evil… Even France had its golden age of nu-metal with the collective named ‘Team Nowhere.’ I think we all entered metal at this moment, then we all had our own influences.”
The band’s core composer is Steph, who draws on the likes of Children of Bodom, In Flames and At The Gates. Anaïs’ melodies come from the likes of Korn and Slipknot, Jeff loves more industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails and Rammstein, Alex is big into nu-metal and uses Pleymo as a reference, and Jérôme comes from the hardcore scene. And if you’re interested in finding out more, they have individual playlists linked on the band’s Spotify page.
And when it comes to issues that inspire their music, Jeff says: “Lyrics are mostly about social topics, such as addiction to social networks, the futility of war, or domestic violence. Writing is always a personal process fueled by emotions, such as grief or anger. Someone remarked that the lyrics were always about some kind of violence inflicted upon us as humans.”
As mentioned, we’ve met a few French bands this week, but we asked Jeff for his thoughts on their local scene. And he told us: “To be put bluntly, France is not a metal country. Which is terrible, because we’ve got a massive metal scene that has a lot of difficulty to get known. In France, most of the time, no media talks about metal or metal bands. With the Hellfest we have one of the biggest events in Europe and the French TV only comment is : ‘Look, they are dressed funny, drink beer and show their ass.’ Another example is: to find metal on the French radio, you’ll have to wait for a specific slot (often, Sunday night) on a few rock radios.
“It feels like the only ones really trying to help new bands get in the spotlight are YouTubers or streamers. Considering they have more influence on the young generations than TV, things may get better. There’s also a lot of solidarity between bands of different generations.”
With their lineup fully stabilised, Ice Chemicals are fully focused on getting more gigs – having recently played their first gig together – and are available for bookings. They’re also working on new tracks with the aim to have a new EP and a music video released by the end of the year.
You can follow Ice Chemicals on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.
Listen to Ice Chemicals on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Core and GigRadar Metal
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