Hardcore metal poses. An explosion of smart badges. Live sets that nearly sever a band member's big toe: welcome to the genre-munching mega-racket of Test Icicles. This is a band who namecheck Motley Crüe, Rick James, Pharell Williams, Slick Rick and Pantera as well as an increasingly long list of future star bands like Need New Bodies and Sex Positions. "Having everything in your music is potentially a bad idea" says Rory Atwell, a 25-year-old with a self-confessed mania for pirates, "in fact it's potentially suicidal." The band, chorus 19-year-olds Sam Mehran and Devonté Hynes, listen to everything: metal, grime, hardcore, rock, hip hop, pop. It's all in there. And boy, can you tell.
Test Icicles sound like Bloc Party on drugs and in detention. Or a paralell universe Rancid wired into the touretting energy of early Beastie Boys. Or, indeed, an amalgam of almost everyone you can think of - ever. The first single from their newly-recorded LP (which currently has eighteen titles and will end up with one) will be pressed on green vinyl and is a screaming, thrashing pedal-to-the-metal hardcore pop freak-out.
You may have heard another Test Icicles tune, the anthemic Circle Square Triangle, which contains the FM-heading chorus 'We could do with some more Poison' repeated over and over again until the listener explodes into pogo mania. You may also have seen them supporting Death From Above, Year Future or The Unicorns.
When Rory and Sam met, they each had a zillion different bands on the go. "There were about thirty people we hung about with and we'd come up with names for bands. Then we'd do something around it. Make up a couple of songs. Do a few gigs." It sounds like much more fun than gomming out on the sofa watching telly, a fact confirmed by Sam. "If I had cable it would be a disaster. It'd destroy my life." Dev would "turn up, hang out" and bump into Sam who would be hogging the earphones in the metal section of Virgin. He had his own "really bad hardcore bands" and joined the pair in a mission to party at impromptu gigs on East London's Commercial Rd, or in dirty warehouses. Via a My Space message, he heard he was in their newest band, Test Icicles - a name which referred to their previous band, Balls. To start with, none of them could play their instruments or knew the songs. Early fans would say things like "they've got loads better - they've got four songs now". "It's all quite chaotic," confirms Rory. "We write everything really quickly, bang it out, then play it." "People don't know what's hit 'em" adds Sam wryly.
In time-honoured friend-of-a-friend manner, Test Icicles supported The Unicorns in Nottingham. They wrote a handful of songs to mark the occasion and found that once rolled, the Icicles weren't going to stop. "We did three gigs in four days and just kept going. People kept calling us up to do another one. We were playing pretty much once a week after that." They brought their individualised barmy army to a slew of London venues and handed out CDs and sweets to their new faithful.
Test Icicles live is quite an event. "We make noise, we scream, we jump around. It's pretty non-stop" says Sam. "We do swinging from the rafters." Dev turns his head and proclaims that he doesn't do rafters any more, not since he stamped on a huge piece of glass and was sent to hospital to be sewn back up ("it's OK. I've just got a new way of walking now"). His new preference is to hype the crowd in a different way: "I try to throw as many cliched metal poses as possible." He then demonstrates his current favourite, 'the watch', where he performs mega riffing followed by a pause to theatrically look at the time.
Obviously, Test Icicles have other bands on the go. Most prominent is their crew affair, NLS - Next Level Shit. "It's one of 20 side projects. It's a gang, it's a party. It's music, a fashion line, a gang with notoriety." Or, as Sam says "It has more of a hip hop aesthetic but with death jamming and really good t-shirts."
So, finally, what is it that makes a Test Icicles tune such a rocket-ride? The band look at each other and each proclaim a different element: "Flat out 180 bpm tunes and metal zone pedals" says Dev, examining his skull and crossbone Vans. "Screaming, clanking noises, really loud guitars and distorted fat bass drums," adds Rory. "A loud racket" adds Sam, flicking his remarkable hair across his face. And that's it, really.
Personnel:
Rory Atwell 25, grew up in outer London suburb of High Wycombe. Plays everything. Went to college, dropped out. Kept "having ideas then half-doing them." Has a new band called Dogger and might be joining a male voice choir. "It's a 15-strong crew. It's on the cards."
Sam Mehran,19. Also known as Sam E Firehazard. Born in Miami ("I still think I live there") and moved to Australia aged 7. Began rapping at 8 years old and was in a band called Thunderbox at 12. He toured with Oz band Paradise Burning when he was 16, moved to New York, then came to London.
Devonté Hynes, 19, plans his own side project "just called Devonté". Hynes was born in Houston, Texas, moved to Edinburgh as a child, then moved to Barking ("hell on earth"). His first band was called Gel and covered the Smashing Pumpkins until Slipknott changed his life.
Source: http://www.soundgenerator.com/directory/artists_detail.cfm?ArtistID=15141&page=biog
