Izzy Reign – Izzy Reign
Izzy Reign – Izzy Reign
FiXT
Release Date: 21/03/2025
Review by Beth Morait
9/10
Having become somewhat of a streaming star, with her take on ‘This is Halloween’ (From the film, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” amassing more than 10 million streams across Spotify and YouTube, genre-defying musician, Izzy Reign is set to release her self-titled debut album. The press release labels it a mix of Pop/Dance music, Alt Rock/ Metal, and Metalcore. That instantly had me intrigued, because the poles between those genres are pretty far apart! So, do they all work when they’re stitched together in one place?
Starting with ‘Sunken place’ we do indeed get a melting pot of all these genres, with the track switching between Chart Dance and Modern Alt Metal. There’s also a great Progressive synth breakdown in the middle that gives way to Metalcore with growled vocals. So straight away, this album ticks the boxes it set out to, and more! It’s an impressive start to a debut album that’s for sure.
‘Phobos’ is up next, with elements of industrial ambience to start, and the feel of an EDM floorfiller. This is followed by ‘Broken By Design’ which goes through Pop-Rock in the verses, and heavier choruses. It’s got great lyrics, too, which is a feature across the album. Lyrically, the album explores hard hitting themes such as the mental toll of fame, manipulation, survival instincts, and the artists own struggles with religious-induced OCD and intrusive thoughts. So, it’s not a light-hearted easy listen when it comes to the words.
From ‘Pandora’s Box’ the album seems to take a heavier twist, moving more into the Alt Rock/ Metal side of things, but still with an EDM undertone. But by the latter part of the album we get the odd chart-orientated tune, such as ‘Lite-Brite’ which could easily stand up against, and out-strip a lot of the dirge that occupies the charts currently!
This is a really impressive debut album, that’s innovative and experimental, without being pretentious. But the one thing that lets it down for me is autotune. I know it’s widely used in the industry, especially in this sort of music. But Izzy really has a great voice, and it makes me sad that electronic influences have to interfere with that to make it ‘current’.
TRACKLISTING:
01. The Sunken Place
02. Phobos
03. Broken By Design
04. Pandora’s Box
05. Bird Of Prey
06. Into Oblivion
07. Your Entertainer
08. It Is Written
09. Lite-Brite
10. Sandman
11. Incarnate
LINKS:
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