It’s funny how some images and tittles are so immediately connected to some subgenres of Metal. When I look to Ice Age and “Waves of Loss and Power” I instantly connect them to Power Metal. Immeadiately. There’s no way. I can’t help it. It’s so much stronger than I. But, nah, Ice Age and “Waves of Loss and Power” are great Progressive Metal pieces strongly inspired in the 1990s. From where I sit, 1990’s Progressive Metal is more related to some Jazz and grooves and even some swing. That’s exactly what I hear with “Waves of Loss and Power” which, sometimes, flirt with some pop especially with vocals. Well, some 1980’s Prog Rock outfits did the same back then. Some of them had some proud outcomes. I mean, return, if you know what I mean. Ok, right, Ice Age bring back, to some extent, the prowness and swing of Jazz in an album to be praised for its musicallity and abitlity to join it with something pleasant to be heard. There are some weird Prog Rock and Prog Metal albums that are impossible to hear.
“Waves of Loss and Power” is a long album. Its eight tracks comprise more than an hour long which is long, very long. As I use to say, most progressive Metal bands bounce to be sometimes more Progressive than Metal, and sometimes, more Metal than Progressive. It’s the thin ice they slide around. Ice Age deal with them as well. However, there are tracks that bounce both as, for instance, “Together Now,” where the guitars have a clean way and keyboards sound as 1970s. Others, as “All My Years,” go even more Progressive in the beginning to add some Metal guitars near the chorus. For Prog Rock, distorted guitars have a very dissimilar meaning than to Metal. They are to mean stress, they are to close a tension created. For Metal, they are everything, they are the basis, they are the fulcrum. “Waves of Loss and Power” has both in general. Some tracks more than the others. “Float Away” has more Metal guitars and melodic construction though the keyboards. Here the guitars lead. That’s another difference.
Here we’ve got a great album to get to know how Progressive Metal was in the 1990s and to understand some influences got into the subgenre. Rush is the most obvious. There are others not only from Metal music, but especially from Prog Rock. In this very especific case there are some Jazz influences as well which spices the dough.
Ice Age “Waves of Loss and Power” will be released on March 17th via Sensory.
Track Listing:
- The Needle’s Eye
- Riverflow
- Perpetual Child, Part II – Forever
- Together Now
- All My Years
- Float Away
- To Say Goodbye, Part IV – Remembrance
- To Say Goodbye, Part V – Water Child
Watch “The Needle’s Eye” official music video:
