A Skylit Drive - She Watched The Sky

A Skylit Drive has represented one of the latest Myspace fads in post-hardcore music. The formula of high-pitched vocals accompanied with raw screaming and splitting metal-core-escque breakdowns is brought back once again in the band’s debut EP She Watched The Sky. Scene fans rejoice!

The hype surrounding this release immediately apprehended me to the notion that a generic metalcore/emo hybrid was surely breeding. Comparisons to Chiodos, Thursday, and Taking Back Sunday on their Myspace would only fuel the fire. What comes out though is something slightly different sounding. Imagine the singing vocals to be a mix of Coheed And Cambria’s high-pitch with the flow and sincerity of Dead Poetic in New Medicines. Screaming takes a slightly different turn.

In album opener “Ability To Create War,” screams come out in an extremely high pitch mode with underlying growls and shrieks, much like Drop Dead Gorgeous meets Through The Eyes Of The Dead. Couple that with the antics of a tuned down guitar throbbing with the muted open notes of a breakdown and welcome to the substance of probably an eighth of the EP. “Drown The City” takes a slightly different turn towards a more A Static Lullaby type sound mixed with guitar work of Norma Jean and Underoath. Simply put, this entire album feels like it can be compared to quite a few artists who have done this kind of album already and done it well. Not taking away from A Skylit Drive, the band’s EP achieves quite the same effect: an entertaining yet not enlightening 27 minutes of my time.

By the track “The Past, The Love, The Memory,” A Skylit Drive had to insert their “slow track” of the record, since every band seems compelled to have that one heart-throbbing tear-wrenching slow song that builds off to a cacophonic moment. More elements of the album are brought out in “A Reason For Broken Wings,” which parellels a more A Thorn For Every Heart meets Saosin type sound with guitar work in the background similar to Don’t Look Down.

All criticism aside, for a simple and flat-out enjoyment of post-hardcore’s finest new bands, A Skylit Drive fits in very well with the puzzle. They are in good company with bands like Drop Dead, Gorgeous and Escape The Fate, yet this band has something that I enjoy a lot better than the others: high-pitched vocals that actually don’t make me cringe. For some reason, Jordan Blake’s vocals just seem to flow nicely by the end of the album and come out as one of the largest highlights of the EP. The ability for the band to retain its sound outside of a breakdown is another highlight for me. Too often are bands known for the “heaviest and most earth shattering breakdowns” in their post-hardcore recipe, and choruses like in “According To Columbus” just work well in tying together the rest of the song.

Believe me, if you are not a fan of post-hardcore today and can’t stand bands like Escape The Fate, Drop Dead Gorgeous, A Static Lullaby, A Thorn For Every Heart, Saosin, etc, I can hardly see you enjoying this album. The album is a nice refresher of the state of the scene today for me, and hopefully bands will begin to spread their wings a little bit and focus a little less on the breakdown and more of what is structured around it like A Skylit Drive has shown in She Watched The Sky.

TRACK LIST:

01. Ability To Create War
02. Drown The City
03. The All Star Diaries
04. Hey Nightmare, Where Did You Get Them Teeth?
05. The Past, The Love, The Memory
06. A Reason For Broken Wings
07. According To Columbus