Band:	Scale The Summit
Album:	The Migration
Style:	Instrumental, Progressive metal
Release date:	June 11, 2013
A review by:	BloodTears

01. Odyssey
02. Atlas Novus
03. The Olive Tree
04. Narrow Salient
05. Oracle
06. Evergreen
07. The Dark Horse
08. Willow
09. Sabrosa
10. The Traveler

How do you translate colours into sound? And how do you explain what you see in music? The new Scale The Summit album makes me question things because it is such a visual experience. I interpret The Migration as a new stepping stone toward their musical destination and not really a departure from their previous creations.

While Scale The Summit's music is in line with instrumental progressive metal, their musical narrative is quite distinct. They are known for the technical skill, guitar shredding, and the typical meanderings of this type of prog, but in The Migration it's all about the pace. Every song is well-paced and the album itself is balanced; it doesn't fluctuate much in terms of quality. Actually, it sounds beautiful most of the time. The songs are lively and tell a story, which can probably be explained because they are concise, the main hooks are majestic simple melodies, and the little interludes "Sabrosa" and harmonics splendor "Evergreen" help the album breathe. There is also the technical instrumentation aspect and other intricate ornaments but the core structures are simple.

You can still recognize other bands in their music like the shady Opeth tone at the beginning of "Willow" and the Joe Satriani-like melodies throughout "The Olive Tree" but essentially Scale The Summit have a trademark sound by now. Most of these songs are brightly-coloured, take the playful closer "The Traveler" as an example, except for the dark and introspective "The Dark Horse", probably their heaviest exercise on this album with mesmerizing melodies to go along with it.

The disadvantages of The Migration may be that it will only appeal to a certain niche; not everyone can stomach extensive bass and guitar solos and the so-called "pretentious" factor that you can find in prog. Thankfully, these guys really know how to write songs.

When you reach the end of the album, the painted colours of the artwork will make sense and blend with the music and you will have lived an adventure that you will want to repeat. One of the biggest merits of Scale The Summit and good instrumental prog is that while vocals and lyrics can show you the way and lead you where to go, instrumental music leaves the road open for you to choose your own path.

Best songs: "Atlas Novum", "The Dark Horse", "Willow" and "The Olive Tree".