EXCAVATIONS OF THE MIND

You won't find me complaining about Progarchives review system; I think that the five stars are a perfect way of giving a clear meaning to an album. But they are an incomplete system, and it is with the reviews that you truly learn what a listener is thinking. As such, please do not gloss over this review, see that it is three stars, and assume that this band is merely "ok".

Sky Architects debut album, Excavations of the Mind, sounds very mature. The prominent elements, in my ears, are the guitars and the piano. Although the guitars are often distorted and heavy, they never really feel that heavy to me - more like, they help build a semi-wall-of-sound effect.

One thing that I really like about the music is that it's constantly shifting. The band moves from one section to the next and makes it all sound very natural. Although most tracks have vocals, they contain many more instrumental sections. When the vocals do make an appearance, the vocals lines are usually memorable and/or catchy.

All these elements combine to make very interesting and nice to hear prog music. The only area that I feel the band isn't quite perfect is getting feeling across. This album features heavily the idea of going insane, yet the majority of the music does not really have this feeling. Listen to Colin Masson's "Two Lighthouse Keepers" or Van der Graaf Generators "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" (lighthouse keepers are crazy) for examples of an area where a band succeeded musically in this regard.

Regardless, for a debut, Sky Architect have shown that they are off to a great start, especially in the opening epic (Deep Chasm) and the closing track (Gyrocopter, which could easily have been expanded and is a great, high energy track).

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