Ice Giant - "Ghost of Humanity"
Symphonic Melodeath that takes us to the stars, but doesn't save us from ourselves
Ice Giant is a small Symphonic MeloDeath band from Lowell, MA - which is the town that I now call home. In a “small world” fashion, they’re currently touring with Scorched Moon, who also dropped an album this year, and whose frontman is an old high school buddy. Naturally, I can’t not give them a go.
Of course, I put them on the list without realizing that they were, at their core, Death Metal. And that’s a genre that I always have issues with. But maybe that just helps to balance my biases?
My initial impression, as I admire the album art and the minute-and-a-half intro track, “Heritage”, slowly builds me into the album, proper, is that it’s incredibly fitting for Ice Giant and Scorched Moon to be touring together, given that the subject matter of both is an epic and apocalyptic sci-fi concept.
What I’ve found in listening, though, is that Ice Giant’s sound on Ghost of Humanity, their second full-length outing, is impeccably balanced. While I’m typically put off by endlessly-grating harsh vox,1 I’m a sucker for good Symphonic and Power Metal. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried other Symphonic MeloDeath bands before. But they never quite manage to pull off the blend in a way that works for me.
Ice Giant, on Ghost of Humanity, has hit upon something I can get behind. There’s still a ton of harsh vox, but there’s also so much more going on here. Clean vocals are present and relevant; the double-kick is relentless, especially as the band leans into the harder sections in unison and the guitar chugs out some of the most thrilling thrash moments I’ve heard in years; even as they’re doing so, keys and violin will sometimes just show up in the background and help drive the melody; harmonic backing vocals show up at the most perfectly opportune moments.
Ultimately, in regards to the band’s ‘sound’ on this album, “Symphonic MeloDeath” is the most accurate descriptor, still, but it really doesn’t tell the full story, as the band’s stylistic decisions vary in accordance with the needs of the song, rather than just trying to make songs that fit their style. One song can venture from Death to Thrash to Prog to Symphonic to Power, then do it all over again. There’s a lot of variance in each track, so nothing ever gets stale. It’s constantly moving, never settling.
And that’s typically the sort of thing that makes good long-form music such a marvel. But these are, for the most part, songs that range between four to five minutes.
I don’t have any song-specific comments because, to be honest, two listens is not enough time to fully parse each song.
The band does have lyrics posted on their bandcamp page, which is helpful, because understanding harsh vocals is never an option.2 Because of that, I am able to actually lean into the story and dissect the album’s overall concept.
The lyricism is okay - there are no poetic lines or brilliant metaphors at play. Rather, the lyrics focus heavily on their primary task - telling the epic saga of how Earth fell to the machines and the remnants of humanity scattered to the stars. After eons of being lost in space, at least a portion of the survivors find sentient life which takes them in, gives them a home. But, by the end of the album, human nature has taken over and caused fresh tragedy on this new world.
It’s an album that feels especially poignant as we watch Neo-Nazi rallies grow in numbers in America, and fascist policies encroach upon mainstream political thought in one of the major parties. We have all of the historical evidence to help guide us against these things, and yet we’re doomed to repeat those mistakes because our collective memory is so short and our pride is “too big to fail”.
The greed of the few will be the downfall of all.
I never thought I’d say it, but I have a favorite Death Metal band.
Rating: Blue
Which is why I don’t typically go for Death.
Which is why I don’t typically enjoy harsh vox. Well, one of the reasons.