Iconic Eye |Hidden In Plain Sight
Label: Independent / Self Released
Release Year: 2015
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: AOR, Hard Rock, Progressive Rock
Band Members
Tim Dawkes – Vocals
Greg Dean – Guitars, Keyboards, Songwriter
Dave Wasson – Lead Guitars
Gary Slater – Bass
Paul Emery – Drums
Guest Musicians
Lee Small – Vocals
Official Iconic Eye YouTube Channel
To put Iconic Eye into modern perspective this is not your parents or grandparents AOR. When you think of AOR in a hard and heavy capacity bands like Journey, REO, Styx, Survivor, Toto, etc … always come to mind. While Iconic Eye certainly carry elements of bands from AOR’s past in the same tune they carry heavier and harder elements like Gary Hughes’s Ten, Brazen Abbot, the supergroup Rated X etc… They seem to also have some prog influences such as Gary Hughes Once And Future King rock/metal opera to Pink Creme 69.
There are 12 tracks on Hidden In Plain Sight. After my multiple listens, I really believe every track and song will hold up in a live set each with their own studio integrity and purpose. You have straight away rocker hits and potential live anthems with tracks Now That I’ve Found Love, You Make It, All She Needed, Don’t Stop Me From Leaving. There are more traditionally AOR sounding tracks like Let It Rain Down , I Can Feel it , and Every Little Thing that remind me of greats like Survivor’s- High On You or Honeymoon Suite’s – I Feel It Again or Journey’s – Separate Ways.
No matter the direction of the album I feel it is one of those that will serve a two-fold purpose. One it will most definitely attract old school Baby Boomer and Generation X’ers that were around during AOR, Hard Rock’s ‘Golden Age’ and introduce younger audience to a form and genre that seems that it does not plan on going away any time soon. I give Iconic Eye’s Hidden In Plain Sight a 4/5 for giving the world a album that will eventually reach many generations to come.