Saturnian
Obsidian Skies
From their EPK, "Lyrically, the EP takes place on Saturn's moon, Titan. In this story, Earth became inhospitable to life and a portion of humankind left the planet to settle on Titan. After colonizing the moon, society began to take shape. Many people could not let go of the thought of all the people left behind on a dying Earth and began to riot. As a result of this, the military presence on the colony dispatched the instigators and enforced a strong, almost dystopian order on the moon. People were at peace, but were not able to live a fulfilling life." The EP contains three songs.
"Celestial Age" is the first. The music is steadily heavy out of the gates, with some great drum and bass work. The vocals are harsh but some melody builds before the chorus. Clean vocals come in along with dancing guitars at the chorus. It's a little sad in its tones, but also just a bit hopeful, at the magnitude of leaving Earth for another place in the solar system. Imagine leaving loved ones behind on a dying planet? The band flexes some serious chops in the song as well. "Rebirth in the Stars" is an eleven-minute opus. It features a combination of about every element within the genre of Metal, thrown together in a boiling stew that takes hours to complete...raging, harsh vocals, clean vocals, symphonic sounds, piano, and many others. Although a central theme is hard to distinguish here, let the song ride, because the journey is better than the destination.
"Home" closes the album. It's a gentle and peaceful song reminiscent of one of our favorite places in the world...our home. Still, the song is not without some sad and harsh tones as well. The band's musicianship is fantastic, but some of the elements just don't connect as well as they could. This is often one very difficult thing when it comes to songwriting, especially on an album that is this ambitious...the transitions have to be perfect or else you can hear the key jamming as it tries to turn in a hole just a little too small for it to fit. Still, this was strong enough in many regards to make me a fan of the band, as well as looking forward to a future full-length release.
7 / 10
Good
Songwriting
Musicianship
Memorability
Production
"Saturnian" Track-listing:
1. Celestial Age
2. Rebirth in the Stars
3. Home
Obsidian Skies Lineup:
Logan Dougherty - Guitars, Piano, Orchestration
Tim Watervoort - Guitars, Basses, Vocals
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