MUSIC REVIEW: Ice Age - The Great Divide

"A band with promise."

These days, the most difficult challenge for a progressive rock/metal band is finding its own unique sound. While some bands succeed, but most fail. While Ice Age fails to generate originality, they are good musicians and they write good songs, evoking I&W-era Dream Theater (lots of string synths, keyboard-guitar unison lines) at times and Rush at others. The production, while muddy at times, complements the band's energy. The vocalist has talent, and at times he sounds great, but there's times when he tries to sing beyond his abilities (not cool).

"Perpetual Child," a heavy and crunchy song seething with energy... energy that much of the album lacks. Hard to follow up a song that good. That's not to say there's no other impressive material here. "Spare Chicken Parts," while perhaps unfocused and too ostentatious, is an exciting instrumental. "Ice Age" is great hard-edged progressive music, with all it's varied constituents molded together nigh-perfectly. "To Say Goodbye" is the appropriately grand album closer (lots of great piano in this one). (Note that these are all the album's longest songs, totaling nearly 40 minutes.)

I haven't really warmed up to the rest of the album. Maybe I won't. Although the band is skilled, I find the shorter songs fail to be all that stimulating. It appears that when the band is not writing epic pieces with ambition and lush orchestrations, they meet with less success. Still, this is a worthwhile album that makes a good impression, for the most part. I've heard that the band's follow-up, Liberation, is much better than this one, and I'm inclined to check it out. The Great Divide shows a band with promise, so it would be no surprise that Liberation reveals flowering ability.