The more I listen to progressive music, the more I am getting
\nconvinced that this genre is the next flavor of heavy metal. And,
\nif metal is indeed on a commercial upturn as other reviewers and I
\nhave been predicting for over a year, then this might be the way
\nfor progressive rock to finally step up to the plate again after
\nalmost 30 years out of the “superstar” mode.<\/p>\n
If all of this comes to pass, then I would not be surprised to
\nsee Ice Age leading the pack. Their recently released album
\nThe Great Divide<\/i> is a work that should make believers out of
\neven the greatest skeptics, and should bring a lot of joy to
\nlisteners due to solid songwriting and performances.<\/p>\n
Sounding uncannily like Styx in their heyday (albeit more
\nprogressive, less commercial), guitarist Jimmy Pappas, bassist
\nAaron DiCesare, vocalist\/keyboardist Josh Pincus and drummer Hal
\nAponte take building blocks from such bands as Emerson, Lake &
\nPalmer and Genesis, but they dare to throw in a little UFO, Iron
\nMaiden and Metallica into the mix with a harder edge to the music.
\nThe end result is one that might surprise the die-hard prog-rock
\nfans, but is a welcome breath of fresh air into the genre.<\/p>\n
Tracks like “Sleepwalker” and “Join” hook the listener, thanks
\nin no small part to Pincus’s vocal similarities to Dennis DeYoung.
\n(With DeYoung’s recent health problems, I am very surprised that
\nStyx didn’t consider asking Pincus to tour with the band, and have
\nIce Age serve as the support act.) But if you think this is a Styx
\nclone, think again; musically, Ice Age has their own agenda, and
\nthanks to the interplay between Pincus’s keyboards and Pappas’s
\nguitar licks,
\nThe Great Divide<\/i> plows its own path and challenges the
\nlistener to accept this band on their terms.<\/p>\n
The pure pleasure of the musicianship – as well as a gauge of
\nhow much fun the band is having – comes on the instrumental “Spare
\nChicken Parts”, a number in which each band member is given a
\nchance to strut their stuff. At times, Aponte’s drum work reminds
\nme a little bit of Rush’s Neil Peart, although he doesn’t go into
\nall the complexities of percussion. (Good thing, too; if he did,
\npeople would say he was ripping Peart off.)<\/p>\n
What is special about Ice Age is that they can launch into a
\nsong that is over 10 minutes in length, but the time seems to fly
\nby. This is not something that every progressive band is able to
\ndo, and for Ice Age to nail this skill on album number one is very
\nimpressive. Songs like “Perpetual Child,” “To Say Goodbye” (which
\nis really two songs labeled as one) and “Ice Age” seem to pass like
\ntraditional radio singles – and they make for great repeat
\nlistens.<\/p>\n
\nThe Great Divide<\/i> might not win over those who believe that
\nprogressive rock should be its own unique animal, and it may take
\nsome time before the metalheads really get into a disc like this.
\nBut if both camps gave it a fair shake, they might soon realize not
\nonly how much this disc complements each style, but how much each
\nform of music has in common. (Seeing that I’m noticing a lot of
\nprogressive acts being tagged with a “metal” label as a
\ndescription, it might be that people are waking up to this
\nfact.)<\/p>\n
\nThe Great Divide<\/i> is a solid debut effort from this quartet,
\nand it makes me very excited about this band’s future potential.
\nMark my words: if metal is truly making a comeback, Ice Age is
\ngoing to be one of the bands that inject new blood into the genre’s
\nveins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7455],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39105","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ice-age","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39105"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}