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Artist: Dax
Album: The Icarus Syndrome
CD Review: CD REVIEW: Dax-Icarus Syndrome

As I listened to Dax and his release, The Icarus Syndrome, I thought, what a great metaphor and wondered what he was flying to close too or imagined he was, as the mythical story goes. Maybe he’s been burnt by love one too many times. On the cover of the CD it’s just Dax and his dog, the proverbial loner, fitting for his first self- recorded release.

Truth, the first track, gives us a bit more of an insight. A hungry man who knows what he wants “I want a piece of you” he pleads. A great riff leads off the song and some stellar guitar playing, it’s an excellent choice for the lead off track.

Just another Story, track 4, has an early nineties unplugged sound, from the guitar to the vocal, to the production.

Dax is hard to pinpoint, at times there’s thoughtful introspection at others it sounds as if he wants to blow the Marshall Amps. He jumps around from style to style, hey this isn’t a complaint so much as query. I enjoyed the blues inspired numbers and also the sparseness of some of the songs but it made it difficult at times to sink into the album.

The production is admirable for essentially a home recording, though some of the vocal tracks do tend to echo too much for my taste. I would like to here his voice a little cleaner.

The jingly jangly guitars of Zella, track 6, and the screeching Eddie Vedder vocals make me think that Dax should just go for it and make a hard raw Rock album.

The Last Parade, the last track, is a song that I really cared about. Oh how I wished for another verse, but I really enjoyed it and the title is a fitting end to this first self produced and recorded album by this transplanted Indiana singer-songwriter.

An interesting album from a promising artist, from the first to last track, I hope Dax doesn’t get too close to the sun and lose his wings so he can give us another one soon.



Haight Rite Records
C/o Dax Penick
1266 Hwy.250
Vevay, IN 47043
812. 531.3843
dax@seidata.com