Scale the Summit

My first experience with Scale the Summit was just over four years ago, when I saw them open for Dream Theater in Las Vegas on the 2009 ProgNation tour. I remember being taken aback by the band’s seemingly perfect blend of emotion and technical complexity. The band name really described their music, and by the end of their set, I was in awe. Fast forward four years to last night. In what I heard was one of the fastest and best-selling nights of their tour with UK proggers TesseracT, Scale the Summit amazed Vancouver with some of the tightest musicianship I’ve seen live to date. The Tom Lee Music Hall was filled to near-capacity, and as one of the first all-ages metal shows Vancouver’s had in a long time, the crowd was a fair bit younger than I’m used to seeing. Preceded by the progressive deathcore of The Body Politic, local openers Icosian, and the heavy riffs of hometown favourites Ancieents, Scale the Summit put on a solid show, well deserving of their status as one of the new wave of progressive metal’s flagship artists.

Considering the technical complexity and emotional intensity of their music, the first thing that strikes you when Scale the Summit go on stage is how casual and down to earth they look. Contrary to the norm of metal culture, Scale the Summit make no attempt to express a visual image or stage persona. They focus exclusively on the musical performance, and don’t try at all to colour their performance with unnecessary stage antics or showman’s tactics to deter from the music itself. To an extent, this is a relaxing change of pace from the typical state of things at a metal show. This focus on the music is in turn reflected in the audience themselves- I don’t think I saw one person out in the crowd who wasn’t drawn in by what they were hearing. By the time the band began to close their set with “The Olive Tree” however, part of the crowd got a little more worked up and began dancing, of all the things you wouldn’t expect to see at a metal show.

Scale the Summit’s reserved and an uncompromisingly music-focused approach to live performance will no doubt discomfort some who experience it, and others drawn from the metal community might hold the band’s lack of stage presence against them. Personally, I think there’s something pretty hypnotic in seeing musicians wrapped up in their own private world while an audience watches in awe. Although I interpreted their laconic approach to stage performance as the result of lacking confidence and inexperience the first time I saw them four years ago, it’s clear to me now that Scale the Summit are presenting their music exactly as they want it, and without succumbing to the typical stage gimmicks of more conventional metal bands.

With that being said, it wouldn’t have hurt for Scale the Summit to have had some sort of visual counterpart. Given the lush and jaw-dropping quality of their most recent album’s cover art, some sort of background cinematic would have been a welcome addition to the experience. The crowd was very receptive to the band’s performance throughout, with cheers getting particularly enthusiastic when “Odyssey” and “Atlas Novus” (two of my favourites from the new album) were both played. On top of those two, “The Olive Tree” was another highlight, particularly the uplifting lead that opens up the song. For what it lacked in visual bravado, there was a great musical chemistry at work, particularly between the two guitarists at right and left stage. Hearing two guitars counterpoint each other with finger-tapping is something I’m pretty sure could never get old.

Here’s to hoping I’ll get to see these guys perform sometime again soon!