Identity X releases 2nd full-length album
The hard rock band Identity X is set to release its second full-length album “Wounds of Our History” on Sunday.
The date will be celebrated with an all-ages album release show also featuring the bands Horus Maze, Color Me Blind and HOA.
“Wounds of Our History” features the modern hard rock sound the band is known for while playing up maturity in both songwriting and production.
The first single is the same title as the album. Other tracks are “Kings on the Hill,” “Fire of Suburbia,” “Breathe Again,” “Getting Over,” “Goodbye Sunshine” and “Lifetime Frozen.”
Audience members on Sunday can expect the vocal acrobatics of lead singer and guitarist David Toole, who also works as an actor.
He is a Cranberry Township transplant from the North Hills.
Toole said Identity X's music is “great for fans of contemporary rock bands: Coheed and Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, and Saves the Day, and Incubus. The band's sound also nods to bands of the '80s rock era Guns N' Roses, Skid Row, and Rush.”
The release show for the group's debut album “Perception is Reality” in 2009 sold out.
Changes since then include training Toole has done for his voice.
“I've become a lot more versatile thanks largely to extensive training in the Estill voice method under Kim Steinhauer. Additionally the steady work in musical theater has given me opportunities to learn and try out new or unfamiliar vocal textures and timbres,” Toole said.
“All of this has made its way into the way I write and perform with the band. There's a theatricality with our writing; each song has peaks and valleys just like a good play or musical!”
The singer/songwriter also won a recent acting award: the 2018-19 Broadway World Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his work as Galileo Figaro in Pittsburgh Musical Theater's “We Will Rock You.” He has also performed with the Pittsburgh CLO.
The band's guitarist and backup vocalist is Darin DiNapoli of Pittsburgh, bassist is Roman Prokopenko of Penn Hills, drummer is David Ardale of Youngstown, Ohio, and guitarist is Albert Park of Beaver.
Although Identity X started in 2003, founding members Toole and DiNapoli have been writing together since meeting in seventh grade English class at Linton Middle School of Penn Hills, according a media release.In 2006 they went on to win an Emmy Award along with fellow Robert Morris University classmate Brad Grimm for their self produced music video “Archetype.”One of Sunday's opening bands, HOA, features two Butler County residents as well: Brecken Farrell of Saxonburg who attends Knoch High School, and Shaun Walker of Cranberry who is a student at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School.Tickets for the 7 p.m. Sunday show at Jergel's Rhythm Grille near Cranberry Township are available through the band's website, www.idxmusic.com, or at the door.Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 for early entry at 5 p.m.Toole can also be seen in other upcoming musical theater shows.“I just finished the first public reading in New York City of a new musical being developed for Broadway titled 'Cliquot' and also recently closed a run of 'Newsies' with Pittsburgh Musical Theater playing Jack Kelly,” Toole said. “My next contracted theater gig is 'Once' playing Emcee with the Pittsburgh CLO this August!”
