SKYCONTACT

"Skycontact" is the second full-length studio album by Dutch death/doom/progressive/avant-garde metal act Phlebotomized. The album was released through Cyber Music in February 1997. It´s the successor to "Immense Intense Suspense" from September 1994. There have been a couple of linuep changes since the first album as violinist Maarten Post and bassist Patrick Van Der Zee have left. They have been replaced by Jaro Stulrajter who performs both bass and violin on "Skycontact", making Phlebotomized a sextet on this release.

If Phlebotomized were already a relatively unconventional death/doom metal act with strong progressive leanings on the last couple of releases, "Skycontact" is a full-on progressive metal release with both avant-garde, alternative/goth rock, and death/doom metal leanings. They actually play a pretty strange combination of styles and it´s one of those adventurous releases where you almost can´t describe what you´re listening to in a coherrent and meaningful manner. The vocals are both growling and clean sung and the latter vocal style isn´t the most well performed. The clean vocals sound a bit weak and there isn´t much power in the way they are performed. While "Skycontact" may come off as impressive upon initial listens, it looses a bit of steam the more you listen to it. It´s not that the album isn´t loaded with intriguing songwriting ideas which are performed by a skilled band, but the lack of a musical direction and excursions into all sort of genre territories make for an uneven and stylistically inconsistent listen.

While I usually praise bold songwriting and adventurous music in general, "Skycontact" only partially hits the mark. It´s ultimately a more interesting listen than a great one. I´m often left wondering how Phlebotomized came up with some of their interesting songwriting ideas but when I evaluate the emotaional impact the music has on me there´s little here moving me or stiring up aggression or other emotions. "Skycontact" features a decent quality production job and as mentioned above the musicianship is overall on a high level (except the clean vocals which lack power and a distinct sounding voice to deliver them).

So, upon conclusion "Skycontact" is a difficult album to rate. I´m still intrigued enough to know that there is quality here to warrant a 3.5 star (70%) rating, but then again I´m not always sure how much I enjoy listening to the album...it´ll be a 3.5 star (70%) rating for now, but I´ll reserve the right to change that rating if I change my mind down the line.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

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