ICE AGE
Liberation (Magna Carta)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Progressive rock is dead, right? Impaled on it's own pole of pomposity and buried by the insurgent hordes of punkers and alternativists that have spent a couple decades dancing on the grave, right?

Wrong. In pop culture, nothing ever dies. Prog rock has splintered six ways from Sunday, subdividing amoeba-like into too many sub-genres to keep track but with a still discernible central pulse. One of the primary life support systems for prog these days is Magna Carta, which provides a recording home for some of the genre's biggest names (Kansas, Steve Morse) and a proving ground for some of the most promising newcomers. Among the newcomers is Ice Age, and their second album, Liberation, is definitely a case of promise realized.

All the essential ingredients are here - Arron DiCesare (bass) and Hal Aponte (drums, percussion) provide the thunderous platform needed to support the immensity of Jimmy Pappas' guitar work and the overarching dramatics of Josh Pincus' vocals, and Pincus' keyboard work provides all the frills and thrills the music calls for. The net result is a sound that is totally integrated to an unusual extent - four players going hell-bent for virtuosity without stomping on one another at all. The rarity of such an accomplishment is the result of it's difficulty, and the mark of the great ones is making it sound easy. Ice Age make it sound easy.

The only drawback they face is their resolute determination to stay out of the little boxes that people like me are apt to put bands into - they're not exactly symphonic, or metal, or pop or any other conveniently assignable school of prog. They're all that, and something else too boot. They're Ice Age, and they're great.

Track List:

The Lhasa Road (No Surrender) * March Of The Red Dragon * The Blood Of Ages * A Thousand Years * When You're Ready * Musical Cages * Monolith * The Guardian Of Forever * Howl * The Wolf * To Say Goodbye, Part III: Still Here * Tong-Len

© 2001 - Shaun Dale