Excellently performed musicianship should never represent itself as a test of endurement for the listener. You shouldn't have to force yourself to be patient in order to hear the "gems" in a given album. There is so much goodness in this new Ice Age release, and with so much talent behind it, that I wish I didn't have to mention the facets about it that I didn't care for. I'm going to blame both a lack of ingenuity in the production, and also a bit of pretentiousness regarding melodrama.

A lot of hard work and long hours went into crafting these pieces. As mentioned, the musicianship is unarguably some of the best I've heard from a lesser-known band. Think of if as "off-broadway" Dream Theater. The songwriting isn't quite as innovative, with much of the melodies rooted in traditional minor and pentatonic scales. Still, there are the requisite tight performances in the rhythm section, often laced with ripping synchro work between Jimmy Pappas on guitar and Keyboard/Vocalist Josh Pincus. There's stunning vocal work invoking 70's-era Kansas to a tee. The percussion and bass sections back everything up more than capably, but without any shining moments.

It's a dry album. With very little layering, the music itself is relied on heavily. Everyone was recorded at the right volume, but like so many rock albums from the 80's, nothing technically "interesting" is done in the studio. This can be considered a credit to the musicians for carrying the album completely alone.

Perhaps my biggest complaint is the presence of some of the cheesiest keyboard sounds I've ever had to bear in a prog rock album. And since the drum, bass, and guitar presence is sonically unwavering, the keyboard sounds alone are the only things that change from song to song, which isunfortunate, since they're so bad! Imagine Mozart playing on some beat-up Akai from 1985 or something. It's just a shame. Josh Pincus is tremendously good, bearing a marked resemblence to Kevin Moore... but it's like he's slumming here, or his "real rig" wouldn't fit into the studio.

For example, the very first track, "Lhasa Road" starts out sounding like a goddamn game show! Furthermore, this song, which is about the recent tragedies in Tibet, bears no musical resemblance at all to anything even remotely invoking Eastern culture. It was an interesting musical exploration, but an inappropriate setting for this particular cultural subject matter.

Here's hoping that Ice Age earns some much-deserved capital from touring this year, so they can fund a better production for their next album, and therefore really get to shine the way they should.

Shred pick: The Wolf (4:40)

Reviewed by David C. Lovelace

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