AND FEATURING DREAM THEATER’S MIKE MANGINI ON DRUMS
FIRST TRACK “TESTS & ENEMIES”
DUE OUT TUESDAY,NOVEMBER 28
“The unknown beckons us to take leave of the norm and embark on journeys of all kinds.” And so begins the journey into the instrumental progressive rock novel INTO THE GREAT DIVIDE, due out January 26, 2018. The project, whose mastermind has not revealed himself,will launch today (Tuesday,November 28) with the first single, “Tests & Enemies,” the album’s fourth chapter. The rapturous instrumental serves as a catharsis and turning point for the record; a video for “Tests & Enemies” can be viewed online. Listen to the track here and pre-order the album via iTunes.
Born out of a love of instrumental guitar music, INTO THE GREAT DIVIDE is a narrative journey comprised of a series of musical chapters, each reflecting a part of the story, with a narrator to guide the journey. The goal was not to simply cut instrumentals, but rather to innovate the medium and introduce a new paradigm for recorded music–the “rock novel.”
INTO THE GREAT DIVIDE re-interprets Joseph Campbell‘s classic and influential 1949 archetype The Hero’s Journey for the narrative. Produced by Richard Chycki [Dream Theater, Rush] and featuring Mike Mangini of Dream Theater on drums, INTO THE GREAT DIVIDEcomes to life vividly and vibrantly. Voice actor Larry Davis chronicles each movement of this theme.
“The goal was to tell the story across ten individual chapters, each constructed independently to evoke the specific characteristics of that part of the story,” Chycki explains.
Mangini (also known for his work with Steve Vai) added the foundational rhythm layer, laying down the tracks at Dave Grohl’s 606 Studios, tracking through the legendary Sound City Neve console for a truly thunderous drum tone.
The album opens with the gorgeous cinematic piano of “The Crossing,” then moves to the guitar crescendo and propulsive bass lines on “A Call To Adventure” before settling into “Under A Bright Starry Sky.” The story continues to progress from chapter to chapter. Finally near the end, we see things as though born anew on “The World You Made,” an uplifting and energetic celebration before sending off the story with “And So It Ends.”
The goal is for listeners to join the journey, and perhaps in the process to see progressive rock as a much more approachable musical form than they may have thought. And ultimately to experience an entirely new way of telling a story.
Once you fall INTO THE GREAT DIVIDE, you–and the world around you–may very well never be the same ever again.
The INTO THE GREAT DIVIDE track listing is as follows:
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