Saturday: Skyharbor - Celestial

     By now all you Skyharbor fans out there will likely have heard the news, but for those who haven't: singer Dan Tompkins is, alas, parting ways with Skyharbor and dedicating himself completely to his work with Tesseract (real blow for Tesseract fans, right?) and presumably his other solo/session stuff.

     Skyharbor fans take heart, however, because the band has already introduced the world to Dan's replacement, American vocalist/producer Eric Emery, and even provided a little taste of what's in store for us as far as Eric's Skyharbor vocals will be concerned. Click right about here to sample Eric's take on Guiding Lights lead single "Evolution".

     Facebook tells me tracking for a new Skyharbor single is about to begin, so maybe we'll hear Eric on some new material sooner than we think. In the meantime, however, we're going to go back to square one for your way-late Saturday Skyharbor song. Go back in time a bit and check out the epic "Celestial" from Skyharbor's superb debut Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos and then join me in counting down the days until we get some Eric-led Skyharbor.

Skyharbor - Idle Minds

     Despite the fact that I'm both a Skyharbor fanboy and a Dan Tompkins fanboy, I didn't put Skyharbor's sophomore disc Guiding Lights on my Best of 2014 list. That doesn't mean, however, that Guiding Lights isn't a solid album deserving of at least another day in the sun.

     I think I overlooked Guiding Lights at the end of the year because, for me,  it didn't have the instantly memorable songs of Blinding White Noise. But Guiding Lights is a grower, not a shower. Every listen reveals another layer and sinks the album's hooks deeper.

     So Skyharbor gets another Song of the Day, specifically "Idle Minds", another textbook sample of Skyharbor groove and strong Tompkins vocal performance. So when's album number three coming out then, boys?

Skyharbor - Evolution

     I'm very excited to be able to recommend tonight's song to you, especially because I got to hear it a couple of days ago. Feast your ears, dear reader, on the first track from Skyharbor's as yet untitled second album.

     "Evolution" has a lot going for it -- good grooves, some techy/noodly lead work, more great Dan Tompkins vocal work -- and it perfectly straddles the line between growth and experimentation on the one hand and refinement of your existing sound on the other.

     I'm the kind of Skyharbor fan how would have been happy if Blinding White Noise had been a triple album, so the fact that "Evolution" doesn't stray too far from what I know and love is welcome news. But since it also doesn't sound like the boys have simply been resting on their laurels, Skyharbor's sophomore disc has the potential to be a monster. Go throw some money at them to help them finishing recording already.

Album of the Week: Skyharbor - Blinding White Noise

     I told you guys over the weekend that I'd be back with a little something to keep you going while I'm away, and here I am, with a new feature that'll hopefully run alongside the daily songs whenever I get back to them.

     In addition to recommending a new song for you every day, I'm going to be trying a different album once a week, just to give you a little bit more time to chew on some stuff that you might or might not already be aware of.

     First up is a record that I've recently been rediscovering, namely Skyharbor's phenomenal debut Blinding White Noise. Big melodies (both vocal and musical), grooves aplenty, just the right amount of technicality and virtuosity to elevate things above the mundane... all of it adds up to a djenty album that's so much more than djust djent.

     Throw in the fact that Blinding White Noise is a double album of sorts -- two shorter discs make up the album's whole -- and you've got a pretty ambitious debut that succeeds at every turn. I can't wait to hear a follow-up, but for now I'll just have to spend some more time with Blinding White Noise.

     And that's just what you should do too. If your tastes are anything like mine (which they might be, if you're reading this) then Skyharbor will be something that you dig. So spend the next week giving it a go, and I'll try and turn you on to something else next time.

Song of the Day: Skyharbor - Trayus

     A couple of my favourite bands have some new material for me to digest either already out imminently due (Tesseract's Altered State and The Black Dahlia Murder's Everblack, to name two) but there's a few others with albums under construction that I'm still waiting on.

Song of the Day: Skyharbor - Catharsis

     Like I said yesterday, I think it's fairly safe for me to assume that most of you are likely familiar, or even similarly enamored with, most of the albums on my Ten Best of 2012 list. But I've got a hunch that there's at least a few of you who don't know one or two of my selections, or have perhaps only heard of them and not heard them. Yesterday's Gojira song was aimed your way, and so is today's Skyharbor song.

Song of the Day: Skyharbor - Maeva

     I've written about today's band before, along with their transformation from bedroom project in India to international sensation, back in the United Nations of Metal post. But I really dig them, and I figure there's still lots of you out there who aren't listening to them. What better reason to give them a Song for the Day.

The United Nations of Metal

    I’ve got something kinda fun planned for this time out. Or at least I think it’s fun. Maybe I’m just a big dork. Anyways, some set-up: I recently got thinking about how insular we metal fans can be. I mean, we do listen to a pretty niche genre of music. Even your most mainstream modern metal bands, your Lamb of Gods (Lambs of God?), your Killswitch Engages, your Slipknots (OK, maybe Slipknot is a bad example...), even bands like these aren’t getting top 40 radio play, or appearing on People magazine, or even being followed by douchebags from TMZ. Even the biggest fish in the metal pond are seldom caught by the nets of mainstream popular culture. (How’s that for a metaphor?)