IQ – Resistance

Label: Giant Electric Pea
Releasedate: 27-09-2019
By: Daniel Picón

5 years after “The Road of Bones” IQ comes back with a new album, this time around they also divided their offering into a two sided musical journey which they called “Resistance”.

This is a record that at first gives the impression that it might require a few listens in order to digest and understand, and this is true by all means, but I must add that it gets better the more you repeat it.

The Journey starts with an energetic “A Missile” which introduces the album with a dark synth lead backed by an aggressive rhythm. Peter Nicholls introduces himself with soaring vocals cutting through the heavy guitars. The song has many moments that drift all the attention to the keyboards which sound like they are from another era, an era where synth leads were prevalent in prog rock and even in conventional rock bands, IQ takes you back but with a modern fresh attitude.

The following songs “Rise” and “Stay Down” have a mellower feel to them, but they are all about the buildup. “Rise” in particular fluctuates between naked sounding verses where the vocal shines on its own with minimal instrumentation and more aggressive sections showcasing a powerful control of dynamics.

If the first part of the record was not “Prog” enough for you then you definitely do not want to skip what lies ahead on the other side, brace yourself. The second part of the journey starts off with one almost 20 minute song and ends with another one, such song order within a single record was reminiscent of “Hemispheres” by Rush, I wonder if they also thought about that. “The great spirit way” takes you in with fierce drumming and riffing, but that’s only the beginning of this complex spiritual space epic, it truly uses the whole creative toolkit this band has to offer.

In summary, this epic double album will make you travel through various types of emotions with sounds that fit within the Prog rock paradigm but within it, they bend space and time and expand the limits of the known. In order to reach such inspirational high you must give it a couple of playthroughs.

Line up:

• Paul Cook – drums
• Neil Durant – keyboards
• Tim Essau – bass
• Mike Holmes – guitar
• Peter Nicholls – vocals

Disc One:
A Missile
Rise
Stay Down
Alampandria
Shallow Bay
If Anything
For Another Lifetime

Disc Two:
The Great Spirit Way
Fire And Security
Perfect Space
Fallout

Links:

Facebook