A friend of mine sent me a message that simply said "Check this album | |
out" and linked to this album: | |
"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. |