Derby five-piece Skies In Motion certainly put the metal in metalcore on their bombastic debut ‘Life Lessons’. Sure, there’s all the positivity/give me strength vibe you might expect, but there is some serious rock in the guitars, besides a ton of grit in the vocal and battering ram providing a more than fair analogy for the hammering rhythms.
The moody guitar intro to ‘Architect’ provides a moment of calm before the oncoming storm, which thunders over the horizon with a short assault on the senses of attacking rhythms and screamed vocals that segues into the single, ‘Cascades’. There’s a seriously thrashy feel as it thunders along at break neck speed until the melodic mid-section, preluding a slightly disjointed finale. Even so, they are obviously happy to try something out of the ordinary, so full marks for keeping the listener on their toes.
While ‘Realizationship’ and ‘Happy Families’ are both pretty intense, featuring a cool range of chugging riffs and interesting switch ups, the result is a little disjointed. The band are maybe guilty of trying to pack too much into each track. However, it all comes together in style on ‘Learn The Hard Way’. A track which builds to an epic crescendo and an emotional finale, before the furious slice of raging core that is ‘Ugly’. What a well-worked tune; the tempo changes fit well within the song structure midsection and they sneak a killer hook into the chorus while maintaining a sensorial assault.
There is plenty of other good stuff on offer in the form of ‘Finding Myself Lost’, the old school attack of ‘Five Years’ and the atmospheric roller coaster of ‘Gonvena’. In fact, there aren’t any bad tracks, but weighing in at a lengthy twelve jam packed songs, they maybe over do things a little.
Nevertheless, ‘Life Lessons’ makes for a cracking debut and if Skies In Motion can refine the intricacies of their songwriting, they look set for a bright future.
4/5
‘Life Lessons’ by The Skies In Motion is released on 1st September.
Skies In Motion links: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Instagram|Bandcamp
Words by Edward Layland (@EdwardLayland)
