Skies in Motion – Life Lessons (Review)

Skies in Motion are a UK modern hardcore/metal band and this is their debut album.

Combining raging intensity with heartfelt emotion, this is modern metalcore played with passion and skill.

Managing to strike a fine balance between uplifting positivity and heavy aggression, the music on this album is along the lines of the kind of thing that you’d hope a relatively new modern band would produce, managing to sidestep a lot of the traps that metalcore bands traditionally fall into.

If you think of a mix of Darkest Hour‘s sharp, streamlined delivery, the technical edge of a band like Periphery, and the modern brutality of Martyr Defiled, then add in a bit of extra emotive character akin to a band like Norma Jean or Architects, you’ll have a decent idea of where Skies in Motion are coming from.

The singer has a good shouting voice, raging and tearing through the tracks with emotive and energetic ease. His singing voice is equally effective, and is not overused. He has both character and presence, which are both important ingredients for any singer.

The songs are well-written and have more than a few good ideas thrown into them. The songwriting here ably demonstrates that you can be a young, modern band in 2017 and not automatically have to resort to every genre cliché there is. Sure, Skies in Motion still have some tweaks and refinements to do before they truly come into their own, but on the strength of Life Lessons, they’ll hopefully get there faster than most. Before that happens, these tracks are easily stronger and more individual than those of the majority of their peers.

Life Lessons is an enjoyable lesson, (ahem), in how to sculpt modern aggressive music that manages to combine both high-impact appeal with a deeper emotive substance. The production is also on point, lacking the plastic, empty feeling that a lot of modern metal bands unfortunately have, especially, (it seems), ones that have elements of djent and technical metal in them.

This is a very strong debut album that, especially for the style, is a very impressive and well-crafted one too.

I heartily recommend this. I’ll see you in the pit.