THE MIGRATION

In hind sight, it is with more than a little disappointment that I spoiled my century and hundred and first posts with the blanduer that was and is Big Big Train's English Electric. On the bright side, this will probably be the only time English Electric and the Migration will ever be mentioned in the same paragraph in the universe's vast existence. So if you're reading this, you're looking at something rarer than a unicorn baby. I digress.

Allow me to redeem the folly of 100 and 101 here on 102 by drawing your attention to an extremely worthwhile prog-metal album squirreled away in the recesses of the site, the Migration by Scale the Summit. The easiest way to describe it is instrumental heavy metal Yes for the new millenium. If that doesn't tantalize you, you probably don't belong on PA.

Scale the Summit, is four guys out of Texas who play a collection of oddly strung instruments and are just crackling with talent. It was only after seeing them live that I really grasped the appropriateness of the name. I caught the Tesseract concert here in Calgary over the Thanksgiving weekend. The leads were good, but these guys we're lights out. They came on as the second opener after the unfortunately screamy Ancients and were a total breath of fresh air. They played mostly stuff off this album and rocked the set, very literally. The melody of their tracks is light and complex neck tapping over hard and heavy backing, as cool to see live as it is to hear. My brother and I agreed that it was 20 bucks well spent about 30 seconds after they finished their sound check.

Really the only fault I can find with the Migration is that the mix favours the heavy stuff way too much. The live show really shoved the treble clef into the well deserved spot light. That aside, it is a sweet album and an even sweeter live show if you get the opportunity. 4 out of 5.