A friend of mine sent me a message that simply said "Check this album
out" and linked to this album:
HTML "Carving Desert Canyons", by Scale the Summit
Here are my thoughts, written live, track by track, as I listen to the
album for the first time.
Bloom - love it, like Coheed and Cambria (henceforth known as C&C) w/o
vocal
Sargasso Sea - don't like the beginning, don't like the riff about
1:30 in, not a fan of this song in general
The Great Plains - feels too fast in the beginning but resolves nicely
back into a C&C sounding tune, about halfway through and its got a bit
of an Opeth feel, like Opeth meets C&C, ending goes a bit long, which
is strange since I like Opeth, overall a really nice song
Dunes - this one feels heavier than the previous tracks so far, in a
good way, drummer is making some questionable decisions (IMO of
course), halfway through starts to feel a bit generic like a filler
track, getting bored now with a minute still to go, it just keeps
going, I applaud the dual/harmonized guitars but overall... meh
Age of the Tide - oo... something different! I dig this so far, less
progressive and musically challenging than the others so far, that's a
good thing since it's a nice break from their other stuff while still
being a solid track that's identifiably their sound, when in doubt
throw in a scale or two, nice metal-ish 16th's in the guitar picking
there, extremely Opeth-sounding guitar solo here (love it!), oh yes,
those kick triplets, this is probably my favorite track so far, with
Bloom a close second
Glacial Planet - slowing it down, I like i... wait, nope, y'all got
me, back to business as usual, nice intro though, breaks up the
monotony a bit, chug chug chug... chug chug chug... chug chug chug
chug..., this is a lovely mish-mash, very appealing, 2:40 is
wonderfully rhythmic, this is one of the more Opeth sounding tracks so
far, especially on the drums, oh yeah, 3:30, very Opeth, contender for
best track, easily top three, not the ending I expected, almost a Rage
Against the Machine style ending
City in the Sky - More of the same, like the double-time around 0:45,
back to the C&C sound, nice guitar triplet picking, guitars sound a
bit Iced Earth-ish (the picking and the sound/effects), bass solo!,
this bass solo could be on an SNES RPG soundtrack, I might have mixed
the arpeggios a bit lower in volume, hello sudden guitar flair, are
those high notes in tune?, our first fade out!, average track, good
but didn't blow me away
Giants - after the last song's fade out and the build-up intro I
expected something different, something a bit more, not much to say on
this one, interesting little breakdown heavy part there, this is the
longest track?, hopefully they go somewhere interesting/different with
this to justify the length, three minutes in now, meh?, good not
great, interesting drumming just now, that's promising, I fear they
were a false lead, you know who does "play this riff forever"
correctly?, Opeth, that's who, this song has some identity issues, I
want to like this song, by all rights I probably should, but meh, six
minutes in now, almost over, I feel the last bit of this song is
supposed to have more of an overall triplet feel but fails in that
regard, really guys?, after all that (the whole album) you end on a
held chord?, feels a bit of a cop-out ending
Final thoughts:
Overall I like it, but couldn't listen to too much of it too
often. The individual talent is undeniable. There's no way to listen
to this and not think "Oh, it's Coheed and Cambria meets Opeth without
vocals". That's not a bad thing.