Scale The Summit

The Migration

Written by: PP on 06/01/2014 23:50:17

Here's another release that passed underneath our radar unnoticed last summer, so we're playing catch up once again. "The Migration" by all-instrumental band Scale The Summit is just like its three predecessors a brilliant display of musicianship and differing influences concatenating into one, uniformly beautiful soundscape. Call it sci-fi metal or tech metal if you will, they are and basically have always been an option for those who adore Between The Buried And Me for their complex instrumentals and progressive, richly textured soundscapes, but have always found their gruesome growls a little too extreme for the band to be otherwise enjoyed.

So remove the vocals from bands like Between The Buried And Me, The Contortionist, or even A Hero A Fake, and you've essentially got the building blocks for Scale The Summit's sound. But just like past records, "The Migration" is so much more than that. It features luscious instrumentation that paints vivid landscapes in one's mind, utilizing innovative melodies and plenty of playing techniques not usually seen outside the math rock genre as its means. Here, those incredible technical feats are slowed down to allow them more room to breathe, resulting into a sound that's drawing equally much from art metal as it is from progressive rock masters Rush at the same time. It's truly an album that you need to listen to on a great pair of headphones, for otherwise you won't be able to appreciate the intricate detail and compositional brilliance that is found on, for example, album highlight "The Olive Tree". With multiple passages and sections, the five minute song is everything you've ever wanted from a progressive rock song without the unnecessary 10+ minute length removing the fun from the listening experience.

This, my friends, is one of the absolute strenths of "The Migration". Most songs range around the 5 minute mark and below, meaning they're long enough to allow the band to explore all corners of a chosen soundscape from dual guitar riffing to thick bass leads, but not merely long for the sake of being long, progressive rock songs. In today's ADD age, this is a welcome trait that has pushed Scale The Summit into being one of the most critically and fan acclaimed all-instrumental bands around. Me, I would prefer vocals to supplement the technical wizardry, but even without "The Migration" is a fantastic album in the genre and a must purchase for anyone into technical metal.

8

Download: The Olive Tree, Narrow Salient
For the fans of: Between The Buried And Me, The Contortionist, A Hero A Fake, Rush
Listen: Facebook

Release date 11.06.2013
Prosthetic Records

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.