ARTIST: Set For The Sky
ALBUM NAME: The Machine
RELEASE DATE: JULY 2015
COUNTRY: South Africa
CITY: Cape Town
MEMBERS:
Vox – James Roberts
Drums – Alex von Gossler
Guitar – Trent Richardson
Bass – J-Drake
GENRE – Post-hardcore
Set for the Sky is a post-hardcore band that has been fairly low on the radar since their arrival to the scene, since post-hardcore is not often a genre played or favoured by our local musicians. Therefore, Set for the Sky were under the radar for so long and one of the only post-hardcore bands in Cape Town. This album has gained them a whole lot of popularity and has given them a step up within the scene, and I must admit, after listening to this, I see why.
One of the things most noticeable is the fantastic production value on the album. Drums are nice and raw, guitar tones are crisp, the bass is audible and powerful, and the vocals are as clear as day. Everything is so evenly and perfectly levelled up to complement each other, including the techno leads and samples throughout.The production is pretty much faultless and incredibly impressive for a local recording. This makes Set for the Sky’s job important to use this to their advantage and create music that is memorable and makes the feels relevant and worth the listen.
Set for the Sky’s instrumental section is one that is pretty damn skilful and thoughtful, creating a strong energy that can appeal to multiple audiences. On one hand, the band have a distinct Metalcore sound, which is quite evident with the quality of the samples, riff techniques and pattern work used but add an element that many post-hardcore bands forget, the hardcore element. They add a strong element of punk and hardcore vibes which are most evident through the vocal side of things. Although the vocals mostly take on a higher clean vocal, you do hear an off-tone melody or yell, which complement the band most times but sometimes the vocals feel over emphasised. The off-tone vocals can feel very messy and sometimes the vocals don’t seem strong enough to match the energy of the instrumental it’s being sung over, which can be rather distracting and a little bit of a let-down but… let’s not take anything away from the vocals as most times they sound superb on top of the instrumental sections.
This album really did surprise me. Often, we don’t find bands that sound like this in South Africa. We don’t often get records that are of this production quality and bands that approach music in this way. There are some superb tracks on this album, some that I can’t get out of my head (in a good way) and have so much power and memorable value to them that this is going to take a while to get off my playlist. Besides the few vocal issues, this is an album I recommend that people of the rock and metal loving genres have a good listen to!
Reviewed by: Pierre Le Roux (more from Pierre)
Date: August 2015
(More from The Metalist za on SET FOR THE SKY)
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