Tag Archive: Scale The Summit

Metalsucks Streaming New Scale The Summit Track, ‘Redwoods’

Filed Under: New music, Once More With Streaming

Feb.01, 2012

Just as Chris Letchford told me during our interview in December, Scale The Summit are releasing last year’s stellar record The Collective on vinyl. It is limited to 250 copies and contains a new track titled ‘Redwoods.’ Luckily if you aren’t a vinyl nerd like me, you can still get a hold of the new song! Hurray accessibility!

Metalsucks are streaming ‘Redwoods‘ right now, and the song matches the quality and excellence we’ve expected from Scale the Summit. If you love the song, you can purchase the single on iTunes and Amazon!

Scale the Summit are currently on their first ever nationwide headlining tour! They’re playing a massive 80-minute set from all three records, so this is a must-see for fans of instrumental music, post-rock, and prog. Here are the remaining tour dates:

2/2 Portland, OR – Branx
2/3 Seattle, WA – Studio Seven
2/4 Boise, ID- The Venue
2/5 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
2/6 Denver, CO – Marquis Theater
2/7 Kansas City, MO – Riot Room
2/8 St Louis, MO – Fubar
2/9 Chicago, IL – Reggies
2/10 Lansing, MI – Macs
2/11 Toronto, ON ¬†- Wreck Room
2/12 Syracuse, NY – Lost Horizon
2/13 Cambridge, MA – TTs The Bear
2/14 Butler, NJ- Architekt Music
2/15 Philadelphia, PA – Barbary
2/16 W. Springfield, VA – Empire (formerly Jaxx)
2/17 Atlanta, GA – The Drunken Unicorn
2/18 Orlando, FL – Will’s Pub
2/19 Pensacola, FL – Handlebar

- JR

Tags: Chris Letchford, Redwoods, Scale The Summit, The Collective

Basick Records Partners With Prosthetic Records/RED For North American Distribution

Filed Under: General News

Jan.17, 2012

It looks like Heavy Blog’s favorite record label Basick Records are becoming more accessible. No, it’s not because they’ve stopped signing experimental/prog bands in favor of autotuned genericore, but because they’ve partnered up with Prosthetic Records and SONY’s RED Distribution to bring their catalog of music across the pond to North America!

Here’s a statement from Basick big-guy Nathan “Barley” Phillips:

“There’s so much synergy and mutual respect between BASICK and PROSTHETIC, that when the opportunity arose to partner up and launch the label fully in the USA, we just knew that we had to make it happen.
This deal enables us to offer our bands and releases a fully dedicated U.S. staff throughout their touring and retail cycles, as well as providing us with the perfect opportunity to sign some more US bands and to also bring some of our European talent to American shores!”

Bringing Basick acts to America!? Finally! Hopefully we can get Uneven Structure and Chimp Spanner over here once Basick’s presence grows into the new year. Prosthetic are also no strangers to the advancing of prog, snatching up the likes of Last Chance To Reason and Scale The Summit, and at one point, Gojira. This pairing makes sense to me!

Basick have plans of opening an office in LA this year. I can’t wait to see their growth. The first release to take part in this deal is Chimpy’s upcoming EP All Roads Lead To Here, which is due out February 14th.

- JR

Tags: Basick Records, Gojira, Last Chance To Reason, Prosthetic Records, Scale The Summit, Uneven Structure

CHON Performs The Perfect Playthrough

Filed Under: Listen To This!, Video

Jan.03, 2012

Other than a lot of hype and a very promising song or two, I haven’t heard very much about instrumental band CHON. Their Bandcamp has only one song available and there’s a handful over on Facebook, but as far as I know the band has never made an actual release, which is a bit of a bummer. At any rate, the band is still worth your time because the tunes they do put our are all excellent. Think Scale The Summit on a hit of acid, and I guess you’re in the ballpark!

Terrible self-referencing segue aside, CHON recently uploaded a dual-guitar playthrough of a song called “The Perfect Pillow,” which is pretty great as far as playthrough videos go. There’s no fancy multi-angle shots or super hi-def camera shots, but the duo are outside, which I sometimes forget exists. Check that out above!

- JR

Tags: CHON, Scale The Summit

Farewell, 2011: Disinformasiya’s Top 10 Albums of 2011

Filed Under: Lists!

Dec.29, 2011

Once more unto the breach, dear friends. It seems we’re often the last out of our contemporary blogs to put up our ‘best of’ lists, and I think that’s a sure sign that we’ve given it much more thought, and as such are the definitive authority on music for all time ever — NOT that we’re simply too lazy to put it up earlier, and need filler for the time between Christmas and New Year (despite this being all we will be posting).

I talked last year about perhaps how arrogant it is to create these lists and pass judgement on the artistic merits of the year’s music; like there are only ten slots and the rest is tripe, and who am I whose opinions are more worthwhile than yours?

That still holds true to some extent, because we’ve met a lot of new friends this year who have shown us a ton of great stuff – but so does the fact that we work our asses off to listen to all this stuff, and also because, once again, I, and the others after me, filled out the damn application.

I feel this is going to become a continuing theme. I don’t mean it guys; I love you really. As you already have with my fellows, feel free to tell me what you think, and in particular what a huge bag of shite I’m talking; I won’t get offended, honest!

Up at this end of the spectrum, you’re getting your full-on, down to the wire, best ten-only lists (at least with myself and Dormition) – none of this copping out. It was tough, but these are the haggard survivors of the process, but are my personal favourites from the year; based not on technicality, on brutality, or how accomplished I think the release is. No, these are honestly the ten records (and not necessarily albums) that best represent my musical year; that gave me a certain feeling, and that I have come back to again and again, and will continue to do so long into 2012. The same was true of last year’s list; despite my obligations to the new, I still listen the shit out of the old.

BRING FORTH MINE LIST!

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Tags: Ampere, Blotted Science, Circles, Devin Townsend Project, Down I Go, East of the Wall, Frank Turner, Glassjaw, Last Chance To Reason, Letlive, Mastodon, Protest the Hero, Scale The Summit, TesseracT, The Human Abstract, The Matador, Vildhjarta, White Arms of Athena

Farewell, 2011: Gein’s Top 10 Albums of 2011

Filed Under: Lists!

Dec.28, 2011

2011 has been a great year. A lot of excellent music came out and no doubt is probably my favorite release year in recent memory. Check it out:

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Tags: Animals As Leaders, Beyond Creation, Blue Stahli, Born of Osiris, Decapitated, Fallujah, Last Chance To Reason, Paul Wardingham, Protest the Hero, Revocation, Scale The Summit, The Devin Townsend Project, torchbearer, Tyler The Creator, Uneven Structure, Vildhjarta

The Djentlemen’s Club Present a Very Djent Christmas

Filed Under: Downloads

Dec.24, 2011

As we have previously stated over on our facebook page, us heavy bloggers haven’t had the ample opportunity of supplying you guys with your daily reviews and whatnot. Alternatively though, Alkahest has provided us with some stellar content like interviews with Last Chance to Reason and Chris Letchford of Scale the Summit. So be sure to check them out. Also give a warm welcome to our new columnist Chris Collins who will be spoiling you with a professional and in depth view on Music Videos. I would also like to take to the opportunity to thank you guys for another awesome year here at heavyblogisheavy. I haven’t been here long, but I think I speak for all of us by saying we have the best readers on the planet.

Anyways! I got a little carried away! Down to the meat and potatoes! The djent fanclub that goes by the moniker “Djentlemen’s Club” has downright spoiled us rotten this holiday season. So be sure to give them a like on facebook and throw money at your computer screens because they put together an outstanding Christmas compilation featuring acts like Forms, Substructures and the previously mentioned Drewsif Stalin and Carthage. This is one of the best Christmas albums ever for sure. Also, did I mention it’s free? You can download it here for Part 1 and here for Part 2. Check out the songs and track listing after the jump!

Happy thallidays!

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Tags: Carthage, Chris Letchford, Christmas, djent, djentlemens club, Drewsif Stalin, forms, Last Chance To Reason, Scale The Summit, substructure, Thall

Chris Letchford of Scale the Summit: The Heavy Blog Is Heavy Interview

Filed Under: Interviews

Dec.23, 2011

Photo by Harrison Letchford

Yesterday we posted our interview of Last Chance To Reason, but it isn’t the only band we talked to this week. On the very same Protest the Hero headlining tour (which ended last night), we spoke to Chris Letchford of the instrumental progressive rock/metal band Scale The Summit about instrumental music, their latest album The Collective, and the past couple of years on the road.

You guys played phenomenal tonight.

Awesome!

This was the first time I’ve seen you guys live, but I’ve been a fan for a while. Something I’ve always wanted to know; your songs sound very cinematic, like they invoke these images of landscapes and everything with song titles like “The Great Plains” and “Whales.” Do you go into it as if you want to write a song about whales or do you apply the title after the fact?

Usually after the fact. Yeah, cause usually when we write, we’ll finish a song and then we kind of sit back and listen to kind of visualize imagery from all the moods and whatnot that’s going on in the song. Yeah, it’s definitely afterwards, for sure.

Instrumental music seems to have a better market now than it did when you first started. That could be because of technology and everything, but how do you see the more popularity of instrumental music?

You’re definitely right. It’s not that it has more of a market, I think there’s more people are accepting of it, but that’s because instrumental bands are actually touring now, you know? Because there’s been instrumental forever, but it’s just the only people touring instrumental were like Vai and Satriani and a little bit of Petrucci. [Liquid Tension Experiment] never actually physically toured, you know? So they’ve been around since the late 90s or whatever. But yeah, with us, Animals as Leaders, Pelican, Russian Circles and all those bands actually touring, it’s easier for us to get instrumental music out there. So people always say, “Oh, you know instrumental is getting popular now.” It’s like, yeah, more in the touring world, but you know it’s obviously been around forever, it’s just now there are actually bands that are going out there and touring.

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Tags: Animals As Leaders, Between The Buried and Me, Chris Letchford, Cynic, Devin Townsend, Dream Theater, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Last Chance To Reason, Liquid Tension Experiment, pelican, Protest the Hero, Russian Circles, Scale The Summit, Steve Vai

Evan Sammons and Michael Lessard of Last Chance To Reason: The Heavy Blog Is Heavy Interview

Filed Under: Interviews

Dec.22, 2011

[Photos by Jeremy Saffer]

The year 2011 was a fantastic year for music, with many excellent debut albums coming out across the metal spectrum. One breakout act of 2011 is Portland, Maine’s Last Chance To Reason, whose album Level 2 absolutely blew us away. They’re wrapping up a tour alongside Scale The Summit and Protest the Hero at the moment, where I caught up with vocalist Michael Lessard and drummer Evan Sammons in Knoxville, TN to talk about Level 2, their lineup change, Michael’s rugged good looks, and more.

So, first off, I was told by Chris [Disinformasiya] at Heavy Blog to ask why [Michael is] so pretty.

Evan Sammons: [laughs]
Michael Lessard: Why I’m so pretty? I guess I’d have to thank my parents for that one. Just got a fairly decent genetic mix-up.
ES: That’s like asking why Ellen DeGeneres is so pretty, right?
ML: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s one of the mysteries of the world, I guess. [laughs]
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Tags: Absence of the Sun, At The Gates, Barium, Between The Buried and Me, Frozen, Iron Thrones, Last Chance To Reason, Protest the Hero, Scale The Summit, Steve Vai, Terrible Old Man, The Cambiata

Scale The Summit Announce First Headlining Tour

Filed Under: Tours and Rumors of Tours

Dec.16, 2011

Scale The Summit have been touring fairly extensive the last couple of years, supporting pretty much every band ever. These instrumetallers really do get around, and it was only a matter of time before they had their own headlining tour. It had never occurred to me until now that these dudes never had a proper national headlining tour before, but in early 2012, they’ll be taking to the road with Elitist and performing nightly 70-minute sets with material from all three albums. Huzzah!

Check out the dates below, and make it out if you can.

1/28 Dallas, TX @ The Door (no Elitist)
1/29 Albuquerque, NM @ TBA (no Elitist)
1/30 Mesa, AZ @ Underground
1/31 Los Angeles, CA @ Whisky (no Elitist)
2/1 San Jose, CA @ TBA
2/2 Portland, OR @ Branx
2/3 Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven
2/5 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
2/6 Denver, CO @ Summit Front Room
2/7 Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
2/8 St Louis,MO @ Fubar
2/9 Chicago, IL @ Reggies
2/10 Lansing, MI @ Macs
2/11 Toronto, ON @ Wreck Room
2/12 Syracuse, NY @ Lost Horizon
2/13 Cambridge, MA @ TTs The Bear
2/14 New York, NY @ TBA
2/15 Philadelphia, PA @ Barbary
2/16 Richmond, VA @ Kingdom
2/17 Atlanta, GA @ The Drunken Unicorn
2/18 Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub
2/19 Pensacola, FL @ Handlebar
2/20 Shreveport, LA @ TBA