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Icons demonstrates just how little None More Black have changed over 10 years. The rough-and-tumble Philadelphia band still straddle the midpoint between pop punk and hardcore, with vocal harmonies and inescapable "Whoa-oh" chants long having shacked up with curmudgeonly screeds and body-bashing instrumental firepower. Like its predecessors, this third album has a bunch of decent songs with a couple of standouts, "Backpedal" and "Iron Mouth Act." There are still silly inside-joke track titles like "Cupcake Wednesday" and "Sinatra After Dark" that have nothing to do with the actual songs. And Jason Shevchuk retains his ornery rasp while keeping those melodies aloft. Yeah, they've swapped some members and even succumbed to the shuddersome "indefinite hiatus," but all that has yet to make any substantial dent in their approach. None More Black honed their mode of attack ages ago, and it's stayed sharp — Icons represents æsthetic stability, not stagnancy. Rarely thrilling and far from innovative, this release nonetheless justifies the continued existence of the band's formula. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
