Three albums under their belt already, with the last, The Amazing Memoirs Of Geoffrey Goddard, being a well-received concept record based on the diary entries of a time travelling RAF pilot, initial impressions implied we’d be having more of the same but with a fantasy, come sword and sorcery theme running through. If such is the case, there were few monsters hiding in wait to catch us unawares as we delved into the brazen chasms of From The Depths.
Rather, what’s on offer is a brace of hard rock anthems plus a little more in the music stakes as the power trio that is Steve Hill (guitar/vocals), Matt Gilmore (bass/backing vocals) and Neal Hill (drums/backing vocals) as they dip-their-toes in prog rock waters and find it warm.
According to Hill, opening track, ‘Rising Fever’, is a “song is about our journey in the music industry, and tells the story behind the new album.” Press play, and there’s a subtle similarity to the everybody-attack approach that Black Sabbath’s old Sabotage long player offers, albeit with a warmer new wave of classic heavy rock appeal and some well-pitched vocals that have a story to tell. One that’s none-too-different from that old Sabbath one it transpires, with Hill explaining: “The lyrics are about all of the so called industry experts we have come across over the years who have told us to write songs a certain way, or look a certain way. We aren’t built that way, and never will be, so this is for them!”
To which we can only presume that the following ‘Another Way Out’ concerns the doubts that advice may initially have caused but the need to forge ahead. It starts with some really catchy chop-stick bopping percussion over which choice chords unfold veering between anthemic rock and more exploratory excursions in between. And yet, as ‘Fate Of the Souls’ comes next and by titles alone theses songs do seem to be about some conceptual voyage, and sailing through the greater sewerage systems of the music industry from what one can gather, but musically, well; this one comes on like early-Rush with some Brit-kid bravado. Cutting to the quick, ‘Selfish Friend’ speaks plainly while mixing it up between staccato rhythms and more expansive melodic metal sorties, and pretty much guaranteed being a live-set singalong.
‘Clouds’ takes one a little by surprise, it’s heavy rock rooted but there’s an almost Southern rock feel blowing through it, while reaching out towards the epic. From here on, for the next few numbers the socially anxious perspectives seem to become more personal. This one tells us things are alright, but the next goes by the handle of ‘Travesty‘, a warning for another, as once more they seem to be knocking on Sabbath’s door what with that rumbling bass, and an overall chugging headlong rush into the abyss, before chewing up metal riffs either side of an impressive guitar solo. ‘Die For You’ is modern metal over which an almost nursery rhyme vocal refrain’s delivered, the words – if I hear correctly – the taunting sarcasm of bad bloodied lovers.
Chipping away at the coalface face of reality, dealing with a dead-end job and similar mind-numbing activities, we get the almost rap metal of ‘The Grind’ that turns about face when a guitar solo wails away amid harmony backing vocals and some prog metal riffs. Acoustic and electric guitars embrace, then play rough, for ‘Face Down’, then it’s an interchange between offbeat rhythms with more hypnotic-chiming guitar sounds and that full on opening guitar sound rush; it’s quite affecting, not unlike the dynamic cacophony of sound French act Klone produce. The album ends with ‘From The Depths’ itself, so cue wind noises and lightly played broken guitar chords for this eight minute plus epic as it turns into some Tommy-era Who, 2112-schooled Rush battering ram of rockarama that’s as much fun as it sounds, though I’m sure quite serious too I bothered to listening to what they’re singing instead of being busy banging my head and playing air guitar (I do all this in the privacy of my office of course, so the innocent don’t have to watch and suffer!)
Talent’s one thing, keeping it together and pushing on through to redefine who you are as a band without megabuck backing’s pretty much an impossibility, so here’s to Skam who are defying the odds on this and achieving a hell of a lot on this their latest album.
Independently produced with Earache digital distribution, Skam’s From The Depths gets an official release on the 29th November and can be ordered from here.
