Australia; the home of countless above average “core” acts. So, why don’t we add another to the list? Sienna Skies, a six-piece post-hardcore/metalcore band from Sydney, is an ideal addition to the thriving Australia scene. They’ve actually been around since 2006 and released a full length and an EP that was fairly well-received, but their forthcoming release is bound to take them to the next level. Sienna Skies is set to release their second full-length album entitled The Constant Climb through Invogue Records and Artery Recordings in November.
The Constant Climb opens with an incredible guitar lead that immediately brought me back to 2010 when We Came As Romans released one of my favourite post-hardcore albums, To Plant A Seed. Most of the guitar leads heard throughout the album are similar to To Plant A Seed‘s, and from time to time, the clean vocals are reminiscent of We Came As Romans as well. They aren’t quite as high pitched, but they follow a similar pattern and “style”. After the opening track, “Questioner”, the album maintains an upbeat and melodic pace for a few tracks. “Realization” and “Groundwork” are very strong tracks and “Wasting Days” is strong as well, but the chorus brings it down a little bit. With a stronger chorus, it would be one of my favourite tracks on the album.
Again, the album starts off very strong. After “Wasting Days”, however, the music is a bit bland for a few tracks. “Foundations” and “It Is My Time” are solid tracks, but they don’t contain much to make them stand out. Also, similar to “Wasting Days”, “Foundations” is held back by a sub-par chorus. The next track, “Game Changer”, faces the same issue (again) but the rest of the song is very strong, especially the intro and outro.
The final track of worth mention is “Sooner Or Later”. “Sooner Or Later” is one of the strongest tracks and my personal favourite. Everything from the vocals to the instruments to the ambient section sounds like a B-side of The Amity Affliction’s Youngbloods. In my ears, this is by no means a bad thing because Youngbloods is another one of my favourite post-hardcore albums and hearing a few more songs like that is more than welcome.
Aside from a few tracks near the middle of the album lacking anything extraordinary, there is only one other flaw that I noticed when listening to The Constant Climb. The clean vocals coalesce with the music perfectly on a few tracks (“Questioner” and “Directions”), but the cleans on the rest of the album sound a bit forced and weak, and they don’t fit as nicely. For example, the previously mentioned “Wasting Days”, “Foundation”, and “Game Changer” are all held back by the clean vocals and they would probably be better off without them.
Despite its minor flaws, The Constant Climb is an excellent post-hardcore/metalcore release that will be a very fun listen for fans of the genre and bands like We Came As Romans and The Amity Affliction. Hopefully this release is going to push Sienna Skies further, making their next release even better. Be sure to check out The Constant Climb when it’s released on November 16th in Australia and November 20th in the US.
Links: Facebook – Australian Pre-Order
