Issa – Fire and Ice
Issa – Fire and Ice
Frontiers
Release date: 28/08/26
Review by: Jon Deaux
7.5/10
Fire And Ice is one of those rare albums that make you feel alive, which is exactly what doctors are failing to do these days. I’d suggest you not listen to it alone, but this record is great, and it is yourself I am worried about.
On every AOR album, there is a moment when some performer closes their eyes, turns their head towards the sky, and makes a total commitment to a key change that probably made them cry in the studio recording room. That is exactly the number of such moments in this case. And consecutively. Just like that guy who keeps going back to the same seafood dish on a buffet because it is free and he is already there anyway.
Fire and Ice is the latest record by Issa. A Norwegian artist who is the country’s equivalent of a musical question that no one ever asked, but everyone feels relieved, has finally answered. The record is like a velvet hammer hit to your breastbone. It is warm. It is elegant. It leaves its mark. Tom and James Martin, two brothers behind almost half of Frontiers’ catalogue of melodic rock records, have prepared another collection of songs for Issa that are perfect from both musical and lyrical points of view, literally. Don’t take my word for it, though; the tablecloth they have created is amazing as well.
The Martins create hooks the same way others build load-bearing walls – without mercy or apologies. The lead single of the record, ‘Pay The Price’, begins with a combination of choir and synths that makes your hypothalamus think you are in the Rocky movie and taking part in one of the training montages despite sitting in Netherfield (Nottinghamshire) and enjoying a Greggs. As Issa herself put it, the song has “everything thrown at it” – choirs, synths, guitars – and she was right, though surprisingly enough it is not sinking into its excesses. Operatic, yet never boring – this is something very few AOR bands succeed in pulling off.
‘Bullet On The Road’ is one of the most exciting and wild songs on the record, and also an ode to Jim Steinman. The best way to describe this artist is as a person who sees a regular rock song and decides it needs “more everything”. Issa’s vocals on this song convey such an amount of theatre that we can assume she not only wears a cape but has even picked a spot where she will wear it. This song leaves us breathless. With no chance to get any extra oxygen.
The title track is placed on Fire and Ice like an emotion-carrying structural element in a building. The “fire and ice” topic is rather exhausted, at least since the times of Frost and his famous use of that motif in nine lines of his poem, but the Martin brothers are still able to find an original approach, and Issa can make us believe she is responsible for this weather with a single look at the microphone. Then we continue with ‘Sea Of Desire’ – the most dangerous track on the album. But not because it is offensive in any sense. Rather, because of how accomplished it is in doing its job: making you feel young and strong again.
‘Running From The Night’ is one of the songs on Fire and Ice that serves as a bridge to the synth wave era, and there are plenty of songs out there where such a transition fails spectacularly by creating something that would sound better at an office party for a corporation that doesn’t really care about art and music and just uses it to motivate its employees. This one, however, sounds like leaving very quickly from somewhere where you were definitely involved. Tom’s guitar underlays James’ production of the song, and we hear a melody that has a sense of urgency and danger that is not typical of the whole record at all.
The ballads on Fire and Ice are delivered similarly to other records from the same label, that is, armed and ready for action. Songs called ‘The Waiting Game’ and ‘One Step To Paradise’ are examples of a genre that knows exactly when it is the time for the key change to happen, for how long the pre-chorus can be stretched before we hear it, and finally knows that Issa’s voice can be used to bring a song to its climax. And again, she never overdoes nor holds anything back.
Songs called ‘The Shadow Of Night’ and ‘All Or Nothing’ are the structural elements of Fire and Ice – dependable, harmonically rich, and performing their job effortlessly. Then there is a song ‘Stranded’ that introduces us to the record, the same way an opening scene is introduced to us before watching a film. Finally, we come to a song, ‘The Call Of Love’. And as its name promises, it gives it to us.
The only reservation: eleven consecutive tracks with such a high level of craftsmanship, such timing for each of the key changes, such a consistent commitment to the peak – by the time you reach the final third of the record, you may want to check the time. Not because it bores you. Rather, because by now you might realize that you are experiencing emotions non-stop for forty-five minutes and probably need some food.
But this is exactly what ISSA can do, what other artists in this genre are not – making you believe that the lyrics are true. This could be a song about desire, or about exile, or about meteorology, or even about unreturned messages, but she would make you believe it was about something else that matters. In 2026, when sincerity is considered weakness and irony takes over every aspect of life, this can be dangerous.
Fire and Ice doesn’t reinvent AOR but executes it on a level that makes this genre feel obsolete. The Martins gave her a palace. She came, took possession of it, and opened all the windows.
TRACKLISTING:
01. The Call Of Love
02. Stranded
03. Fire & Ice
04. Sea Of Desire
05. All Or Nothing
06. The Shadow Of Night
07. Bullet On The Road
08. Pay The Price
09. One Step To Paradise
10. Running From The Night
11. The Waiting Game
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Jon Deaux and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
