Review Summary: While solid at a level that few bands ever achieve, it's difficult to shake the feeling of wanting something more from V.
Some small part of me is starting to wonder if Scale the Summit is running low on steam. It's definitely not for lack of effort or talent - both are present in no small supply on the simplistically titled
V. But it's an album that feels a little too familiar. More than a handful of themes and hooks hearken back to previous albums, while the striking edge of aggression that possesses most of the album makes it feel as though the band are re-imagining their debut,
Monument, with the benefit of experience. Whether or not that's a good thing is really up to you, the listener, and what you're listening to this album for.
Are you familiar with Scale the Summit? You're likely to find anything and everything that could conceivably be called a hallmark of the band on this album. Sweeping guitar solos? Check. Open soundscapes? Check. Provocatively somber tapping passages? Check. Some of the best rhythm and low-end instrumental prog has to offer? You'd better believe that's a check. The razor edge and speed of
Monument, as mentioned before, makes a bold return to the band's sound as well, marking the biggest "change" in sound for the band since
The Collective dimmed the sun on the mostly bright atmosphere of
Carving Desert Canyons.
Speaking of which,
Carving Desert Canyons has likely been the band's least homogeneous album to this point in terms of mixing and combining the elements that make Scale the Summit the band that they are. And
V easily snatches that label from the sophomore outing. So do you prefer a mixed offering of airy and aggressive; upbeat and a little gloomy? Then
V will fulfill your appetite. But if you're looking for the masterful cohesion of
The Collective, you'll be at least slightly disappointed.
Are you listening for the tone of lushness fellow Sputnik reviewer Jacob Royal once so aptly used to describe the band on
The Migration? You'll find it dialed back here to meet with the sharp bent of aggression. Lushness and aggression, like a rain forest canopy and a team of bulldozers, seem destined to be at odds with one another, though Scale the Summit do a commendable job of bringing the two together on tunes like "Soria Moria" and "Pontus Euxinus." Tracks where it's more chainsaw and less dense forestry? "Trapped in Ice" and "The Isle Of Mull," to name a few.
Now here's where things get tricky. On a band's fifth outing, do you look to hear something new and refreshing, or something well-known and well-developed? There's no questioning that Scale the Summit are great musicians. Every composition on
V is technically and musically solid. They all pass the groove and headbang tests. By every ostensible measure,
V and every track on it is a great, even superb piece of musical work. And genuinely, truly, I enjoy it at this level, the level I've rated it at, and I encourage you to enjoy it at this level too.
But on another level, I have to encourage Scale the Summit to keep pushing. Because at this level, the
next level that the band that created
The Collective is capable of, the sound of
V is the sound of a band becoming comfortable. The aggressive tone of the album, while initially jarring, does not expand the band's territory beyond any established boundaries. Portions of "Soria Moria" sound much too close to "The Levitated." A rather distinct lick in "The Golden Bird" is taken directly from "The Great Plains" and slowed down. And rather than the reprises these should be, whether for lack of a vocalist to add lyrical refrain to the reprise or not, they feel like genuine oversight.
While solid at a level that few bands, let alone bands sans vocalist, ever achieve, it's difficult to shake the feeling of wanting something more from
V. So that nagging little part of me continues to wonder if Scale the Summit are getting to the end of their bag of tricks here. But a wiser part of me knows that the engine of power and invention behind this band is far from done and that there are better days and stronger albums yet to come from them. As for
V? Well, in my book, it will remain a solid, if less frequently revisited entry in the band's discography. Nothing more, nothing less.
