Reviews list for Skycamefalling - 10.21 (2000)

I've been in the hardcore/metalcore zone for longer than 3 years now, and I barely despise anything from that genre. I enjoy many Revolution classics, even ones before this album like Calculating Infinity by The Dillinger Escape Plan and We are the Romans by Botch. Maybe someday I can get into other metalcore bands like Poison the Well and Hopesfall, but this band, Skycamefalling is what I'll start with, all thanks to another one of Daniel's Revolution recommendations!

This is one of those albums that essential for the hardcore/metalcore scene in the new millennium. The sole Skycamefalling album 10.21 and Converge's Jane Doe are two of the first metalcore albums with more poetic lyrics than just uniting a brotherhood of rebellion.

The instrumental "Intro" starts the album. Then "With Paper Wings" kickstarts the action. This is probably the band's greatest hit, filled with driving guitar intensity, one of my favorite metalcore songs to remember! I might just feel up to screaming along to the chorus. After grabbing your throat throughout the song, there's a beautiful piano outro that would inspire hundreds of other bands to add something like that to their songs. You know who "Laura Palmer" is, a murdered girl whose investigation serves as the plot to the series Twin Peaks. This is more aggressive than when Swallow the Sun made a song about Laura Palmer. "The Nothing" is a great way to describe where a relationship leads to: "So where were you when one heart became two?! When three words became more than you could chew?!?" I highly recommended listening to that song!

"-" is just a short instrumental. "Porcelain Heart Promises" covers pretty much everything you need to hear from this band. Another recommendation! "Healing Yesteryear" shows what TDEP and Botch should've done the previous year. "Shallow Like the Sand" is definitely what you should come for poetic lyrics: "Trees fall like iron on their way down, we bury our hands in their hearts and waste away again, because I have tried to turn words to stone, tried to fight the day with my eyes closed." Way more thought out than other hardcore bands! "The Truth Machine" continues the classic metallic hardcore, at a time when progressive innovators like Devin Townsend were on the rise.

The instrumental title epic contains 9 minutes of acoustic guitar, clean piano sounding a bit Eastern, and light percussion, leading to an ending crescendo. A soft break while you breathe in the flames of creativity! "November’s Neverending" gives you the idea of an eternal dark winter with no point in moving on. The album closes with "An Ocean Apart", staying strong even after 5 minutes of silence. A fitting end to a hardcore metal album of a beauty and intensity!

I still can't believe this talented group of musicians split up after only one album, but hopefully there would be more after a few recent reunion shows in the 2010s. As much as I enjoy other metalcore bands, I already miss these guys and hope they'll come back again. A metalcore classic of sheer poetry!

Favorites: "With Paper Wings", "The Nothing", "Porcelain Heart Promises", "Shallow Like the Sand", "10.21", "An Ocean Apart"

I didn’t have any prior experience with New York metalcore outfit Skycamefalling coming into this month’s feature release submission but have seen their 2000 debut album receiving consistently high praise from critics & fans over many years now so have been meaning to investigate it at some point. “10.21” is a lengthy undertaking clocking in at just over 63 minutes in duration however it never feels arduous & that run time is slightly extended by one of those needless four & a half minute periods of silence at the end of the tracklisting which only ends up resulting in a one-minute fading reprise of the closing number.

Skycamefalling’s sound is extremely well defined for a band that was only conducting their very first full-length recording effort & they’ve achieved a beautiful balance of consistency & creativity here to tell you the truth. They represent something much more than your generic metalcore fodder, despite the vocals of Christopher Tzompanakis sitting very much within the confines of the subgenre specifications. Christopher’s gravel-throated screams remind me quite a bit of Converge front man Jacob Bannon actually however the instrumentation is just as likely to draw from external influences as that of Jacob’s band. Unlike some of Converge’s more highly celebrated material though, “10.21” doesn’t offer the most imposing, urgent or extreme variety of metalcore you’re ever likely to hear. In fact, it’s pretty unintimidating is many respects & has chosen a very different tool set with which to slice its prey.

The production job of Jim Winters is a real highlight & on first listen you’d be forgiven for thinking that this album had only just hit the shelves last week. The guitar & bass tones are both warm & thick & maintain a suitable amount of heaviness without ever really feeling particularly metal. Sleepcamefalling actually sit much closer to the hardcore punk side of the metalcore equation than the metal one & that tone is well suited to the hardcore environment. Some of the riffs have a clear alternative rock edge to them too which is further complimented by the guitar tone & this results in even the more rocky & generic & sections presenting themselves in a lively & enthusiastic way.

As strong as the heavier tracks may be though, the most entertaining element of Skycamefalling’s sound is their use of post-hardcore experimentation with the majority of my album highlights aligning themselves with the band’s more ambitious undertakings & casting aside the heavy guitars & screamed vocals altogether. The opening intro piece is a great example as it sounds uncannily like something that Radiohead might have done. I always find myself waiting (even begging) for Thom Yorke’s nasal vocals to slither their way out of my speakers & into my eager ear cavities & it’s almost disappointing when one of the better heavy tracks “With Paper Wings” finally savages your expectations at its completion. Then you’ve got a lovely two-minute clean guitar driven post-rock instrumental that breaks things up nicely a few tracks into the album & the wonderfully epic ten-minute title track with its relaxed tribal rhythm & slowly building acoustic guitar work. You’ll rarely find a better example of the post-hardcore sound & it’s these elements along with the undeniable consistency of the tracklsting that sees my score sitting at such an impressive level.

Overall, “10.21” is fairly easy on the ears for a metalcore record. There are relatively few signs of the abrasive approach that the majority of their contemporaries pride themselves on however there’s simply not a requirement for it here as Skycamefalling have a much broader palate of influences to draw upon & have an acute understanding of the tools at their disposal & the dynamics required to keep the listener genuinely engaged. Throw in a tracklisting that’s completely free of blemishes & you get yourself a damn entertaining metalcore record that won’t disappoint its target audience.

For fans of Converge, Norma Jean & Cave In.