Band: At The Skylines
Album: The Secrets To Life (Album)
Release Date: Out Now
Over in the States there must be a farm breeding metalcore bands, it seems the only logical explanation for the constant stream of similar bands that are constantly popping up. No doubt when Warped Tour organiser Kevin Lyman is putting together a bill he’ll give this farmer a call, in a sweat drenched panic. “I need your help” he (possibly) cries “I only have 73 bands that are churning out the breakdowns, I need more!” Lucking for him six thorough bred heavily tattooed pups have recently become available and they’re going by the name of At The Skylines.
The band’s debut ‘The Secrets To Life’ springs to life with opener ‘Hush’ and it’s mere seconds in that what you’re going to get instantly becomes apparent. Chugging guitars are unsurprisingly sitting side by side with those inevitable breakdowns, and not forgetting the inclusion of electronic flourishes to make them as innovative and cutting edge as every other band that is doing it right now. The band stick pretty rigidly to the metalcore blueprint and as boring as this is the band’s sound is also hindered by often sounding clunky and disjointed.
The band seem to lack a clear direction, while it can be expected somewhat with this being their debut, it still seems unclear as to what the band are trying to achieve. An example of this is ‘143 Princess’ while one minute sounding crushingly heavy and surprisingly technical the band wouldn’t sound out of place alongside the likes of Parkway Drive and Miss May I. However the song takes a schizophrenic turn and delivers a chorus so sweet and sugary it could give Miley Cyrus diabetes. The band don’t shy away from the poppy choruses and while the likes of ‘Turbulence’ and ‘Clear Eyes, Open Hearts’ may get your head nodding they are hardly memorable.
The dual vocalists of the band also often jar and clash with each other. While Mark Barela is obviously the proud owner of a hefty set of pipes, he constantly delivers trembling growls which wouldn’t see him out of place covered in corpse paint and gracing the stages of Bloodstock. Yet co-vocalist Chris Shelley’s whiny emo delivery leaves him sounding like an American Idol reject, and when he does unleash the screams he does so with the ferocity of a man who has caught his penis in his flies only minus the sincerity.
However the most irritating part of this album is the aforementioned electronic samples. Nearly every song springs into life with blips and bleeps yet never actually add anything to the songs themselves. Throughout the album they sound as if they’ve been shoehorned in for the sake of it and is the band’s biggest example of pandering to the masses and following the crowd for no real reason.
It is disappointing that in a year that has seen our shores producing brilliant albums from the likes of Bury Tomorrow and While She Sleeps that have breathed new life into metalcore as a genre that the same old uninspiring bands are popping up left, right and centre. There is undoubtedly a market for it and while there may be those out there who can look past the generic nature of At The Skylines, the rest of us are best off ignoring them, and waiting for this fad to pass as the farm produces a whole new wave of band wagon jumpers.
4/10
Reviewer: Gavin Lloyd
