AWmusic

How do you find a band? You can scour the internet, looking for sound a-likes to your favorite bands, or bands with a lot of positive buzz. If you were in your sixties you could take recommendations from Rolling Stone where you could find out about hip young artists like Bruce Springsteen or U2. In the case of Sky Eats Airplane, I had a friend gush his brains out to me about how awesome they are.

Hailing from Fort Worth and occupying a similar branch on the metalcore tree as Enter Shikari and We Came As Romans, Sky Eats Airplane combine some pretty sick riffs, guttural screams, a faster than a black guy in rural Arkansas tempo, electronica beats and some sweet and silky vocals. (Note: Anthony Green /Craig Owens sweet, not Luther Vandros/Aaron Neville sweet.).

SEA’s first album, 2006’s Everything Perfect on the Wrong Day, is a DIY masterpiece that they self recorded with a Mac and a guitar. For an album lacking professional production, Everything Perfect shines as an example of incredible musicianship. The guitars, helmed by axe men Lee Duck and Zack Ordway, are heavy and perfectly timed, synching when they need to be and at odds when it serves SEA’s purposes. Drummer Kenny Schick, emrbraces the electronic beats, and plays with them, blending his rhythms together with fellow band mate MAC. (For your reference the band considers the laptop to be a member, I consider it to be a useful instrument, and a tool for looking at the midget porn I covet so dearly). Johno Erickson’s bass lines serve their purpose but generally sit third chair in the rhythm section behind Schick and the electronica. Original Singer Brack Cantrell, armed with a kick ass name, and the ability to shuffle back and forth between his deep growling scream and light airy vocals turns what could have been a train wreck into a shinning example of what can be accomplished when the right elements of talent meet the drive to succeed and a need to be original.

Everything Perfect knows when to rock and when to croon. When to push the electonica and when to let it fade into the background, and when to shred ass. On stand out track Giants in the Ocean, SEA utilize the electronica to set the stage, as they often do and then break in with a scream that almost immediately mellows into a sweeter croon. From there the song builds Everytime I Die style, with a stuttering rhythm, multiple styles of screaming and group vocals, while the electronica hits a falsetto and Duck and Ordway (sounds like attorneys you’d never hire) prove that they don’t need to be playing at light speed, to reach the speed of awesome.

The friend that recommend Sky Eats Airplane to me described Everything Perfect on the Wrong day by saying, “In the sea of bad ass, this album is truly the great white shark….or at least the sting ray that killed Steve Irwin, metaphorically speaking of course.”

Strangely enough, this is an apt description of Eveything Perfect, and bad ass is essentially SEA’s middle name, to be found between Eats and Airplane, cause otherwise, it would sound stupid.

Sky Eats Airplane – Honest Hitchhikers Asking for Cash Handouts
Sky Eats Airplane – Giants In The Ocean

For their second and self titled album, released in 2008, SEA juggled it’s line up as Cantrell left the band to, by all accounts, make softer music and spend his days writing Bronte themed lyrics and looking up at clouds in a flowery field of gardenias and dreaming of cotillions and puffy dresses.

After a nation wide search for a singer SEA settled on Hampton Virginia native and supposed former model, Jerry Roush, who impressed the band singing over an instrumental version of the afore mentioned Giants. Jerry proved to be a more than solid addition to the band, as his scream is more practiced and less haphazard than that of Cantrell, but no less harsh. Meanwhile his voice, at most times feels like a vast improvement.

The band traveled to Baltimore to work with Post Hardcore super producer Brian McTernan who has mixed and produced some of the greatest albums of time, including, but not limited too Thrice’s Illusion of Safety and Artist in the Ambulance, Circa Survive’s Juturna and On Letting Go, The Bled’s Silent Treatment, Strike Anywhere’s Change is Sound and Moneen’s brilliant The Red Tree.

The end result proves less charming than Wrong Day, but no less bad ass. While the songs seem to be more tailored towards finding an audience, the entire band has evolved and their level of musical ability has been ratcheted up several notches. Most notably Schick’s drumming has found a more noticeable place in the band the mix applied by McTernan’s magic fingers blends the electronica into the sound, using far more subtle builds to help the songs grow into what they should be instead of leaving it out front lingering like an obvious gimmick.

Numbers finds the band speeding through an opus of raging guitar and a clinic in time changes from Schick, while Roush perfectly balances his screams and singing as the band craft a song that could easily gain them thousands of new fans and a sell out label from fans of Wrong Day.

As is often the case with a bands sophomore effort, Sky Eats Airplanes self titled release doesn’t fully live up to the promise that is evident on Everything Perfect, but is still an incredibly good record. The band’s musicianship has improved, but there’s a spark that isn’t quite there. I’d keep watching though, as it seems likely that not only are Sky Eats Airplane not done evolving and improving, but their best work is still ahead of them.

Sky Eats Airplane – Numbers
Sky Eats Airplane – Photographic Memory

Tags: Aaron, Brian McTernan, Circa Survive, Electronica, Everything Perfect On The Wrong Day, Everytime I Die, feature, Hardcore, Mac, Metal, Metalcore, Moneen, Sky Eats Airplane, Strike Anywhere, The Bled, Thrice