Silent Skies is the collaborative project between piano/keyboard player Vikram Shankar (Redemption/Lux Terminus) and singer Tom Englund (Evergrey). After Tom saw Vikram’s piano interpretation of Evergrey's
on YouTube he got in touch and a musical partnership was born resulting in the debut album from the project Satellites. Despite both performers having a background in progressive metal Silent Skies is driven by the piano playing of Vikram and the vocals of Tom. I have also enjoyed the softer and more vulnerable vocals of Tom in Evergrey songs such as
and this style is explored far more here. The music is a mix of the piano driven and cinematic soundscapes which sound both stripped back and breathtakingly vast and epic. The music is very much driven by its emotional core and these are songs rich in melancholy and sadness and are just achingly beautiful.
Tom Englund has long been one of my favourite singers in metal and he just excels himself here with a heart tugging and poignant performance throughout whilst the piano and keyboard playing from Vikram Shankar is equally as breathtaking with lush orchestrations ensured my arm hairs were standing on end. The album is made up of ten songs with eight of them being original compositions and two cover versions. It is hard not to be swept into the rich, emotional waters of songs such as
Horizons,
Solitude and
Oceans whilst there are stunning covers of Eurythmics classic
Here Comes The Rain Again and Evergrey’s fantastic
Distance. I had high hopes coming into this album and if anything it exceeded them. This is a stunningly beautiful album which is impossible not to get completely lost in. There is very much influence not only from Evergrey’s music but from bands such as Anathema which sits very well with me as Anathema are one of my absolute favourite bands. If you are a fan of melancholic and heartfelt music then I implore you to give this album a listen. 9/10
Morpholith: Null Dimensions (Sludgelord Records) [Paul Scoble]
Morpholith are a 5 piece based in Reykjavik, Iceland. The band formed in 2015, played their first live gig in 2017 and released their first recorded material with 2018’s Void Emissions. Morpholith play a very heavy and droney style of doom, that is monolithically huge and hypnotic. The album is fairly simple, in that it has only 2 tracks, and due to the style of doom that they play those 2 tracks have a certain amount of repetition to them. That's not a criticism, as there is a fair amount of drone in their sound, so that repetition is needed for the style to work. The album opens with Orb a massive 20 minute piece that starts with about 9 minutes of droning build up before a riff arrives. The droney parts remind me of bands like Om, or some of Sleeps more droney moments. Once a riff does come in, it slowly builds, getting heavier and more intense in feel, but without the tempo changing at all. Once the riffs start coming in, the style is closer to Shrinebuilder.
For the last 10 minutes Orb gets much heavier, a new far nastier riff comes in to wake us up from our meditative trance. The vocals, which were clean for the first part of the track, are now harsh and aggressive. The whole song is a slow progression from introspective drone, into heavy doom, and then into ultra heavy sludge, and it works very well. The second and final track Monocarp is much shorter, coming in at just 13 minutes. After a droning introduction, Monocarp has a faster tempo than the song that preceded it, and more aggressive feel to it, there's no meditative sense to this track. The vocals are a mix of harsh and impassioned clean, the interplay between the two styles works well, in many ways it feels like a conversation. At several places the tempo picks up a little and the feeling is driving and dense, maybe a little bit like Yob. Shortly before the end of the song, there is a softer, more minimalist section, that then builds back up again for a huge climax to the song.
Null Dimensions is a great piece of droney, sludgy doom. The styles that they have mixed together fit very well, and the transitions from one style to another are handled very well. My only criticism would be the length of the album. At 33 minutes it’s one of the shortest albums of this style that I have heard, maybe one more track would have made Null Dimensions a more satisfying album. However, having said that what you do get is very good, so the fact that I wanted more, is a compliment rather than a criticism. 7/10
Stuck Out: Lie Through Your Teeth (Sharptone Records) [Paul Hutchings]
Formed in Melbourne in 2015, rock outfit Stuck Out don’t strike me as the typical metalcore fare. The band consists of guitarist Ian Browney, bassist Sheldon Schuyler, drummer Lachy Lydiard, and vocalist Joshua Walker and they released their debut EP You Won’t Come Home in 2018. Lie Through Your Teeth consists four tracks, all delivered with that heartfelt emotional angst that seem to surge through their veins when they compose. Mindless is possibly the most poignant, demonstrating a vulnerability that is so often necessary for this type of music. It’s driven by some pumping riffs; the band are on point and Walker’s delivery sits neatly providing a raw crossover of cleans and slightly rougher elements.
Anthemic is a term I’d often use, and I can see fields of hands waving in time with the music. Crisp production, a powerful and competent sound all enhance the songs with opener Inverse showing the full range of the band’s approach. Whilst it is far from the type of music I’d usually listen to, this is likely to appeal to the army of fans across the globe and there is nothing here which suggests that they will be anything other than delighted with the latest release. 7/10
Satan's Fall: Final Day (High Roller Records) [Matt Bladen]
Just from the fact that Final Day is released on High Roller Records you can immediately predict that this debut full length from Finnish band Satan's Fall is going to be classic heavy/speed metal, driven by razor-sharp twin guitar harmonies, a galloping rhythm section and gnarly vocals. As Forever Blind explodes with everything I just mentioned any predictions are proved spot on as we get a rampaging classic metal riff that shifts into big choruses that are full of occult imagery giving Satan's Fall a sound akin to Mercyful Fate and Angel Witch. With the NWOTHM revival very much based in Scandinavia Satan's Fall are playing music of very high quality despite only being around for 5 years, it's a style of metal that has surely been honed on stage with some of that fire bleeding into the choppy They Come Alive while tracks such as Retribution have a maturity of a Ram It Down-era Judas Priest with the Priest influence also appearing on Juggernaut. While it doesn't break that NWOTHM mold Final Day is an enjoyable enough speed metal record with a real breakneck pace to it, impressive for a debut. 7/10