It’s always gratifying to find a band willing to tackle a larger canvas than usual. Three chords and the truth have unquestionable appeal, but there are those of us who long to hear more variation as we grow older, and our tastes become more refined. I’m not talking so much about venerable progressive bands such as Rush, Yes, King Crimson, early Genesis. Excepting the mighty Crimson, those groups often embraced convention with the same fervor as they challenge audience expectations.
Instead, I’m pointing toward the creative units that upend virtually every expectation of what popular music can and should do. They moor themselves to a limited assortment of recognizable tropes, sonic guideposts for the uninitiated, but reserve for themselves the freedom to journey however they like pursuing the sound they hear in their head. Silent Skies is like that.
Tom S. Englund and Vikram Shankar’s project are on album number three with their new studio collection ‘Dormant’. The ten-song opus (with 3 bonus tracks) doesn’t spotlight long and winding compositions substituting length for a lack of plausible inspiration. They have, instead, long mastered the subtle art of pushing the envelope within constrained borders and cramming an universe of sound into its narrow confines.
“Construct” is cathedral-like. Blending Englund’s voice over a mix of synths and keyboards conjures immediate cinematic overtones and the tandem develops the composition in patient increments. “New Life”, however, turns their focus in a different direction. The exhilarating sheen of the opener gives way to much more thoughtful textures woven by Shankar’s piano playing. It’s a darker piece, without question, but the underlying poetic beauty of his magic on the keys holds considerable aesthetic pleasure. The 3rd song “Churches” has Englund looking into his soul and wondering about a relationship that ended, but still hurts his heart.
They parlay their vision in another different direction during “Just Above the Clouds”. Introducing strings into the musical mix accentuates the song’s ethereal pop pedigree and the ambient instrumental touches scoop listeners skyward with warmth and gravitas. Pop sensibilities or not, this performance achieves a stately grandeur impossible to ignore. The bass playing for this album has an underrated effect on the songs. It supplies a central pulse for “Just Above the Clouds” and “Tides”, as well. Its intermittent presence in the latter gives “Tides” necessary ballast. A song such as this threatens to float off into the ether without its stabilizing presence.
“Light Up the Dark” returns strings to a prominent position. It follows, as well, the album’s secondary songwriting template of following a spartan path for the bulk of the track before cumulating with a rousing finale. Silent Skies ends Dormant with a true showstopper. “The Last on Earth” is the album’s fullest realization of its cinematic style and marries the various surfaces of its nine predecessors into an imaginative colossus. Accomplishing such a feat in a hair over five and a half minutes testifies to their joint gifts.
The three bonus tracks are wildly inventive covers. The true standout, however, is their monumental restructuring of Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”. Englund sings with such plaintive forcefulness that you can’t turn away and the mournful color settling over the piano and vocal-driven gem presents further evidence, if you need it, of the song’s excellence in any guise. Englund and Shankar’s artistry makes the entirety of Dormant come to life and the bonus tracks are the crowning touch.
Garth Thomas