Band : Scale The Summit
Album title : The Collective
Label : Prosthetic
Distributor : Prosthetic
Release date : 01/03/2011
Release : CD

Ach, for once a band with a very simple story! In 2004 your guitarists Chris Letchford and Travis LeVrier moved to Los Angeles in order to attend the Musicians Institute (besides perfecting their guitar playing, the duo also took a course in how to build their own instruments). It's where they met and started jamming with their drummer Pat Skeffington, and where several months later the current line-up was established through the joining of bassist Jordan Eberhardt.

Perfectly tuned into each other (the band's main cited influences include Dream Theater and Cynic, but without a vocalist the band plays an Instrumental ProgMetal) the band soon became a serious affair, and towards the end of 2006 all members moved to Letchford's home state of Texas (more specifically, to Houston). They recorded and self-released (on July 10, 2007) their debut full-length album Monument, a release which eventually led to the band being signed to Prosthetic. Soon after concluding their deal with the label in 2008, the quartet began recording its sophomore album Carving Desert Canyons (at New Jersey's Nuthouse Recording with producer Tom Beaujour), which was released in mid-February 2009. They were then invited to join Dream Theatre, Zappa Plays Zappa, and Bigelf on the Progressive Nation tour. In 2010 they toured North America with Between The Buried And Me, Cynic, and Devin Townsend Project (must've been a wet dream for the youngsters, not even 22 in average age back then).

STS starts out on a new North American tour two days after their new album's release. A tour running until mid-April, during which Periphery and Fair To Midland allow STS to headline on some of the dates. When I last checked, no songs off the new album were posted at (www.) myspace.com/scalethesummit yet, but with the tracks off the first 2 albums you can already get an idea of the musical beauty of this band. In fact, with several people having contacted the band from the very beginning to comment on how STS music takes 'em on a journey, the band decided to call their music “Adventure Metal”...a very fitting title for STS' very organic, diverse, and expressive kind of Progressive Metal. Sounds better than just “ProgMetal” too, don't it? Those of you in need of it, will probably find samples of all 12 album tracks at the album's page on your trusted online sales outlets (Amazon, iTunes, Napster, etc...) pretty soon enough.

96/100

Tony.