Countless Skies "Glow"

    In this modern metal world, I think listeners would like to see more bands taking their time to thoughtfully record an album instead of hammering out a release that shall be easily forgotten within a few months. The United Kingdom based band, Countless Skies, definitely did not squander the opportunity to record a profound release with their new album, “Glow.” I believe that this band’s strong conceptual music making talents will really resonate with people who enjoy melodic death metal.  

    “Glow,” is the band’s second full-length album to date and comes about four years after the release of their first full-length album, “New Dawn.” Their brand of melodic death metal is extremely refreshing and the compositions on this album are very well written. I think what listeners will notice about this album right away is the strong production value and dynamic songwriting style. Out of the seven tracks off of this release, the band never settles for simplistic derivative sounding arrangements.

    The opening song, “Tempest,” is a great piece of music to get listeners acquainted with the band’s style and artistic vision. I thought the guitar riffs on the opening song injected a lot of triumphant energy, yet also matched the emotional tone of the vocal parts. The band uses death growls as well as clean soaring melodic vocals to paint a vivid picture over the majestic sounding instrumental arrangements. This same approach continues on the second track, “Summit,” but you start to hear even more massive sounding guitar riffs come crashing through the landscape and setting up a blazing path for the band to explore further. 

    Track number three, “Moon,” starts out very calm and then bursts into a fearsome sounding guitar and drum arrangement that leads into an epic sounding chorus section. Once again, the band constructs these fluid compositions that are not choppy, or sound out of place. On the next song, “Zephyr,” I honestly believe that the band writes one of the most exceptional pieces music off of this album. The overall atmosphere sounds truly immaculate and the entire band pulls together their talents to record a track that listeners can find themselves drifting away into a cloud of endless harmonious sounding wonder. This track alone makes the album worth listen to and it made me realize how unbelievably talented these musicians are when pertaining to songwriting. 

    The last three tracks off of the album, “Glow part 1: Resolution,” “Glow part 2: Awakening” “Glow part 3: Reflection,” all take on their own distinct identity, however, they all share that same ambitious mentality. I liked the bass riff in the beginning of, “Glow part 1: Resolution,” because it gave the bass player a chance to add to the song’s soothing tone. The last the two tracks also feature a plethora of creative structures and the contrasting vocal styles really compliment the lyrical themes featured on both songs. 

    I think what impressed me most about this album was how Countless Skies continued to push themselves throughout the entire release. As the album progressed each track seemed to get better and better, yet when you look at the entire album you realize that the band did a stellar job writing an impressive tale from beginning to end. More bands need to adopt this mentality when writing albums, because instead of just focusing on a couple tracks, you want people reflecting back on the entire release. I look forward to the next musical epic that this band has to offer and I highly recommend people check out, "Glow." 

Check out the song "Summit" below (Album comes out November 6th, 2020 and is being released through Willowtip Records) :

Countless Skies FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/CountlessSkies

Willowtip Records website:

https://willowtip.com/home.aspx