The first real seeds for Skyliner are planted when Jake Becker meets The Ben while wandering about a local youth group in September 1999. In February, 200 they decided to start a band. After years of jamming and refining their personal blend of thrash, power metal, traditional metal, and progressive tendencies as a two-man, Skyliner plans to record a demo in 1993. Some sessions are booked at a local home studio for late February. In a hurry to get material released, and unhappy with the end result of the 2003 recording and growing communication gap with the studio, Skyliner starts to shop for big name studios to re-record the now named EP, 'Light Comes Out of Black' in April, 2004. The result sees the light of day in February, 2005.
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Line-up: Jake Becker - All Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards Benjamin James Brener (The Ben) - Drums, Percussion, Keyboards Additional musician: Kyle Monster - Bass |
Skyliner are no longer a new band, as they've held together for over 5 years already. I've known about them for some years alreay, because Jake is a regular poster at The Christian Metal Realm. He was also kind enough to send me this demo for reviewing purposes. Describing their sound is probably the hardest when it comes to this band. They have roots in as diverse styles as progressive rock and death metal. Mostly they play a blend of thrash metal and progressive metal. That means fast riffs and licks, but put together in rather long compositions with time changes and stylistic "freedom". The vocals are 99% clean, but some rougher parts, and even death vocals in part on one track. Unfortunatly it seems that this recording is done "live". That means that Jake had to sing and play guitar at the same time, leaving him unable to consentrate on either most of the time. I also think that if they "cut & pasted" a little in the longer tracks, the flow of the songs would have been much better. Being that this is a demo, and a low budget one at that, there are quite a few flaws throughout the recording. The drumwork is at times downright sloppy. I also find the guitar tone a bit monoteous, and tiresome when listening to the whole demo in 1 go. That was the negatives, so let's proceed to what these guys have going for them. They have created a style of heir own. They can write interesting tunes. They have plenty of potential, but may need more practice, and maybe a full band? I know that Skyliner are playing a lot of local gigs, and with experience comes growth. I believe that these guys will deliver in the future! Finally I got to mention the nice artwork, done by none other than Rex Zachary (www.rexorcist.com).
Skyliner also appear on:
V/A - 'The Narrow Path: The CMR Compilation - Volume II'