With Scale The Summit’s release of “The Migration” I was a bit apprehensive to listen to an instrumental metal/ambient band. Most instrumental bands have nice sounding idea, but fail to constantly entertain the listener. Bands either overdo it and complicate the instrumentation too much, or fall short in keeping the listener enticed with the songs. But I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with “The Migration”. With the exception of a few lulls, Scale The Summit has a unique sound that finds a middle ground between energizing the listener with full band grooves as well as relaxing fans with guitar oriented ambiance. The sound and style of the band follows a similar path of bands like Periphery or even August Burns Red, but takes it a notch or two down in intensity.
Not to be discouraged though, the band absolutely has an album worth checking out. Their opener “Odyssey” is reason enough to check out the rest of the album. This song starts the listener off in a catchy guitar riff that the rest of the instruments groove along to. Most of the other songs mimic “Odyssey” in their own style keeping it interesting with familiar syncopation that can be heard everywhere in the hardcore genre.
Although the album is a powerhouse in heavy instrumental synergy, the band brings a mesmerizing sound of ambiance and reverberated guitar that fits in perfectly with the album. The sixth track “Evergreen” shows the perfect balance of ambiance as well as their full band. With these songwriting techniques, Scale The Summit takes their album a step further and treads into the story-telling part of instrumental music. Whether or not it was their goal to create a concept, a journey can be heard throughout the album. While this is an aspect that can be heard through most instrumental bands, it is not always achieved fully. Scale The Summit succeeds in telling their story of “The Migration”. The band does a more than sufficient job in tying the songs together to create an image and creation that can be followed pretty well throughout the album.
While most of this album rings of praise, there are a few dead spots throughout some of the songs on this album. The only exception here though is that this is something that comes with most instrumental bands, and in the big picture Scale The Summit does a much better job of it than other bands. Most of the ambient parts are of a good length, not boring the listener after 10 seconds, and the songs themselves prove the band to have a unique sound while keeping in the pocket of a genre.
Good instrumental bands are hard to come by but Scale The Summit reminds us all that they are not dead! Be sure to check out and experience the journey that is “The Migration”. To get a good feel for the album be sure to listen to the opener “Odyssey” or track six “Evergreen”. Keep an eye out for future Scale The Summit activity and be sure to support original and creative bands like this one!
Rating: 9/10
-Nic Cheatle