Tag: skyharbor

This is album number two from India’s premier progressive tech metal band. After his departure from British tech metallers Tesseract, vocalist Dan Tompkins set up camp with Skyharbor after guesting on their Blinding White Noise record. Of course, with this genre straight forward tunes are not the norm so prepared to be challenged as a listener.

With Dan being involved from the get go with this album, it feels as though there is a lot more melody present in each song. Of course, there are delightfully heavy moments as you would be expect from the dentists. Allure is so good and opens up the album. Wonderful odd time signatures, lots of groove, and great vocals by Dan. Evolution goes down that same melodic path. But the heavy and groovy bombs in around the middle and they do that so well. As with all in this genre they know how to use that low end so well, and yet it doesn’t over power.

Miracle starts very low and yet the song evolves though varying phases without losing the melody. Great tune! My favourite track on the album is the final song The Constant. The song starts super slow and eerie with ambient sounds and faint echoey guitar. When the beat and vocals kick in with that super heavy groove man, it’s heavy goosebumps. Big shout out to Anup Sastry on drums, killer fills and grooves.

They haven’t released anything since 2018 so I’m hoping they have something due.

9.5/10 from The Grooveman.

This is India’s finest exponents of tech metal’s third album, released back in 2018. Melody has always been high on the things they excel at, but with this album I think they have gone above and beyond. The only non-Indian member of the band is vocalist Eric Emery who sort of defines the sound somewhat, just like Mike Lessard does in The Contortionist. In fact, I think those bands are very alike.

After the short instrumental track Signal, the first track proper is Dim. A totally vocal-driven piece with a nice groove and vibe. Out Of Time has a very busy groove, there are some killer riffs and short instrumental bursts all over this track. Synthetic Hands has a short quiet beginning before the pace picks up with a very busy drum groove, matched with a choppy riff. The middle is super heavy and djenty. They do seem to have moved maybe too much away from the heaviness. The songs have become too reliant on the vocals, and the main vocal melodies seem to blend into one. I’m not saying it’s bad, its not, I just would like more of the heaviness. When a track like Dissent blasts in, its like a kick in the nuts. The heaviness is so welcome and a refreshing change, it’s my favourite on the album. I hope the next record mixes it up with a little more crunch.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.

Hard to believe that this masterpiece will be 10 years old next year. Hailing from India, they are one of the high points of the djent bands that came out over 10 years ago. A very ambitious project for their first album as its huge conceptual piece of fours sides split into two parts: Illusion and Chaos. Illusion has Daniel Tompkins from Tesserract who had left the band at this point. Marty Friedman also makes a guest appearance on Catharsis.

Dots kicks things off in epic style and Tompkins voice fits the music perfectly. Order 66 is pure djent heaven as the tune flips from supreme heaviness to beauty in the flick of a guitar pick. Catharsis is next and starts with an epic drum pattern from Anup Sastry, who now bashes the skins for Monuments. Tompkins also shows the harder edge to his vocals as the song weaves its way through numerous phases. It drifts into the following piece, Night, with the beautiful refrain “When Will I Be Home Again”. Aurora is such a great piece of music, killer vocals and harmonies from Dan, and some really heavy chunk from Keshav Dhar on guitar. It flows into a very jazzy middle eight and the end screams of Everybody Dies. My favourite piece from Illusion is the next track, Celestial. I’m not sure I have the vocabulary to gush over this, it’s just an amazing piece that has everything. Absolute crushing guitar riffs and grooves, mixed with the beauty of Dan’s voice. Monster stuff. The first piece concludes with Maeva, a wonderful exercise in how to write a modern Prog/Marla epic. No Cookie Monster vocals in sight, just superb playing from all and the guitar solo here is other worldly.

Side 4 is given over to the second piece, Chaos, and Part 1 Trayus announces its arrival with crushingly heavy guitar and the return of the Cookie Monster with a change of vocalist in Sunneith Revankar. Aphasia starts with a very complex fast odd time groove, which carries the piece all the way through. Insurrection closes out the album and is as extreme as the title suggests. I’m at a loss to see how the drummer would still be alive after performing this live. Incredible drumming!

I do like the way they have split this up with different vocal styles that show a light and dark vibe. The other album I reviewed today was Manowar, and forty years apart there is no comparison. Metal has changed so much in that time it’s unrecognizable. I love this album heaps and it gets 10/10 from The Grooveman.