I've said it before and I'll say it again – Into The Great Divide's debut album is going to be one of the progressive metal albums to beat in 2018. The album is instrumental metal divided up into chapters, with each chapter prefaced by voice actor Larry Davis guiding you along in the story. The members of Into The Great Divide that we're aware of thus far are Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini, Dream Theater producer Richard Chycki producing the whole thing, and now project mastermind Zack Zalon who recently revealed his identity.
We're ecstatic to premiere Into The Great Divide's new song "Chapter 6: Dark Waters" for you today, which is nine minutes of pure, unchecked melodious bliss. Zalon described the song as "like Ozzy’s Diary Of A Madman, deeply moody without being slow and ponderous," though that's a bit like calling van Gogh's "The Starry Night" a pretty good painting with some nice colors.
"The goal was an energetic track, but yet dark feeling throughout. Early on, before it was written, I thought a lot about what kind of music would rightly represent this part of the narrative, and concluded that it would make sense to get the song somewhere like Ozzy’s Diary Of A Madman, deeply moody without being slow and ponderous. And with a sense of discomfort wherever possible.
The song starts off with an acoustic section, building very slowly toward the main theme. Sadness, coupled with anger and frustration–those are the keywords used when composing. Think of the angry hits at 3:13. And the guitar cutting out in the main section starting at 3:48. The idea was to build tension into the whole thing, with a sense of drama. But here’s the essential thing: as in life, even in our darkest moments, there’s a glimmer of hope that carries us along. And that’s the chorus section here, sadness, but hope too."
Into The Great Divide is out January 26.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmzfD0zdvmg[/youtube]
