There is more than one artist under this name:
1) Ictus was a melodic death metal/sludge/crust band from Galicia, Spain.
They released a debut EP entitled 'Hambrientos de un Sol Distinto' in 2005, which was rawer and shorter than their later material but still hinted at and displayed some of their future characteristics. They also released two splits in 2006: One with Okban and another one with This Thing Called Dying, both featured lengthy songs closer to their final sound.
Their sole full-length from 2007 simply entitled 'Imperivm', was in the form of a single 39 minutes track which was a concept album about the United States of America. The album most notably contains a highly emotional passage consisting of a spoken-word section that slowly builds up into screaming which denounces all of America's atrocities against other countries. The entirety of the lyrics are sung in Spanish and the motto of the album is 'Mismo Imperio, distintos nombres' (Same Empire, different names -- in English). It can be identified as ironic Spanish citizens are denouncing America for what they have done as Spain are guilty of something even worse (this does not diminish USA's crimes in any way); however, they bear no responsibility for what their 'conquistadores' ancestors did. The motto of the album could also be seen as indirectly denouncing Spain as one of the same empires that terrorised and oppressed other cultures, even reaching as far as back to the time of the Romans and deeper into human history.
Over the years, a couple discography compilations have been released. Just the splits and full-length may contain more material than most bands possess across their entire and own large discographies.
It is a common misconception that Ictus were a melodic metalcore band. Their hardcore elements were pulled directly from crust; namely epic/melodic guitar leads inspired by Tragedy, crust gutturals and rhythms based around an unrelenting d-beat galloping orgy. Their metallic elements were sludge-derived and their melody sense was purely At the Gates-styled Swedish melodic death metal.
They basically took Tragedy's crust/d-beat style and played it through a melodic death metal lens, added some sludge on the side and even some disparate post-rock sensibilities that helped define what was later known to become neocrust. Their sound remained as the most original and unique iteration of neocrust then seen until another Spanish band -- Dumange -- eventually, during the late 2010s sprung up and picked up their sound adding elements of their own to create the spiritual successor to Imperivm.
If anyone truly wanted to label them as 'metalcore', perhaps it could be argued their sound was closer to what actual melodic metalcore should have sounded like; in theory, just traditional metalcore mixed with melodic death metal riffing -- not what some have described as 'the highly americanised and pop-bastardised questionable version of melodic death metal' that eventually got all labelled as 'melodic metalcore'.
The band sadly broke up in 2007 after a road accident they had near Minsk in Belarus wherein they sustained grave injuries.
2)Ictus (or Ensemble Ictus) is a Belgian group performing contemporary music. http://www.ictus.be
3) Ictus is a Swiss producer of electronic stuff with a strong influence from hip-hop and breakbeat.
4) Ictus is also the name of a Mexican indie band. Their sound is influenced by post-rock, with influences from shoegaze and electro. www.myspace.com/ictusmx
5) Ictus is a Danish Jazz ensemble performing modern and experimental jazz. They released their first and to date only album "Live" in 2004.
6) Ictus was a Death Metal / Chaotic Hardcore band from Boston, MA before changing their name in 2001 to The Red Chord. They only released one demo CD as Ictus, prior to the East Coast Tour Demo under The Red Chord moniker.
"Ictus" refers to a sudden change of state in medicine, whether it be a stroke, seizure or fainting spell. "Ictus" also referred to the stressed syllables in classical poetry, but has subsequently moved out of favour as a term.
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