WAVES OF LOSS AND POWER

Round about one hour of splendid heavy prog from the States. This third album comes like a surprise, because the recent one saw the light of day already a while ago in 2001. Formed in 1992 ICE AGE therefore are veterans of the prog scene now, filed under the category prog metal in general. That's plausible somehow, one can say, but does not entirely cover the stylistical bandwith over the years, in the same way on this occasion. Aside from the band's inner circle, who seriously would have expected a new sign of life more than twenty years later? And secondly, who would have anticipated the arrival of such a terrific new song collection on top of it? Josh Pincus (keys, vocals), Jimmy Pappas (guitars) and Hal Aponte (drums) have been the constants right from the beginning. Only bassist Doug Odell is new to ICE AGE 2.0, where new is relative of course, when you're considering the long hiatus.

Let it groove! I really appreciate the quartet's tricky and powerful presence throughout. Sorta heavy metal impression first when getting the first tones of the opener The Needle's Eye. But then again some elements like the symphonic synths and the well placed piano lines presented in between are far away from a metal approach. Brings them closer to the likes of Kansas, Enchant, Straight Light, Red Bazar aso. Josh Pincus' singing voice sounds a bit like Ted Leonard, moreover has a touch of opera, not equally, but yet in the vein of Freddie Mercury's expression maybe. Great! Sing along appeal when it comes to the masterpiece track Riverflow and over the course of To Say Goodbye too. Waves of power, no loss. Progressive in the true sense of the word!