After being asked to accompany my best bud in seeing Scale the Summit in Chicago the other night when I was completely oblivious to the band I can only say that the tradition of Keith and me introducing each other to new and incredible music continues. Scale the Summit is a four-piece instrumental band from Houston that absolutely destroyed me in the live setting. Their latest effort, The Collective, is nothing short of a masterpiece, hands down.

The brainchild of one of the metal movement’s up-and-coming guitarists Chris Letchford, STS houses one of the most unique and fluid sounds for any progressive metal fan to consume like candy-coated popcorn. What one derives from listening to the latest (or any release, really) of STS is that the criminality of under-exposure looms over this band for no good reason. What generally impresses Opeth, Dream Theater or Joe Satriani fans is found herein and then some. The song “Whales”, for example, is a jazzy, ethereal metal-fused jam that capitulates on every nuance, blatant or otherwise, and creates a phenomenal wall of sound that can easily carry you away with careful musical emancipation. It has been a very long time since a band has sucked me in so easily, and I usually familiarize myself with a band before seeing them live. This time it worked out the other way and I have since been in constant play-mode with all three releases. This is truly a band to be heard, revered and studied.

As a bassist myself, I told STS bassist Jordan Eberhardt that I would just give up the instrument; this young man is the absolute perfect bassist. I can’t even lay comparisons as it would serve to denigrate my own feelings about him. I hear some of the most delicately concise fingering across The Collective that I’ve heard in years! “The Levitated” showcases some of that fine bass work and careful guitar tapping assembled in one song. The smattering of heavy metal in both design and sound does pop up in very even spades, but to say that this band transcends the genres is a glorious understatement. The Satriani-esque “Secret Earth” is the perfect ‘space-out’ music without going into too much Neil Merryweather territory; the well-constructed pieces are so encompassing that it’s hard to narrow the tracks to what is good and what is really good. The entire album is one that should be heard as, well…a collective.

Second guitarist Travis Levrier and drummer Pat Skeffington add to the pace of the album in impeccable design. Seeing them in the live arena also solidifies this, as they move through the music with Letchford and Eberhardt with all the ease necessary to create such brilliance. While the band has casual attitudes on stage, the vinyl I currently spin tells a much weightier tale. The all-out audio assault-and-battery on the senses that has weaving and bouncing through intense chord changes, note-bending and tapping, tremendous drum fills and expert bass thumping only fuels the mechanism that is this flawless band. The Collective serves notice to similar bands that the medium is in for a shock to the system once these young men get the recognition they so emphatically deserve.

The sharp-edged production on The Collective is one of the charms about it as a whole. The evenness of the sound with every instrument represented to its fullest intent is a welcome and seemingly primitive art form in the age of mud and low-budget fiascos. “Alpenglow” is one of my favorite tracks by the band for its gradual splendor and slick foray into prog-metal fusion with some jazzy insights for measure. The wonderful production and level playing field is proudly evident right here, but it is an attentive effort throughout. This is the sound all music nerds like me will fall over themselves to attain through their own musical ventures or silently sit back and ingest it slowly so as to find utopia within the seven-stringed basking that is Scale the Summit.

If you get the chance to see these guys live, by all means do it! Seek out the music, open your mind’s eye and just let it all go in a swirling sphere of intensity and brilliance in a 12-bar scale.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Colossal
2.  Whales
3.  Emersion
4.  The Levitated
5.  Secret Earth
6.  Gallows
7.  Origin of Species
8.  Alpenglow
9.  Black Hills
10.  Balkan
11.  Drifting Figures

Total playing time:  45:38

Release Date: March 1, 2011
Label: Prosthetic Records

Scale the Summit  The Collective

Reviewer: Chris

February 12, 2012

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