Review of Sikth - The Trees Are Dead and Dried Out

Unfortunate as it may be, there are many times when vokills can make or break a band, and it is also unfortunate that Sikth leans more towards the latter. Sikth is a band that falls under the “off the wall” boundaries occupied by bands like Dillinger Escape Plan and where At the Drive In used to reside when they were together. Throwing together over-the-top vokills, crazy guitar riffing, top notch bass playing, and dead-on drum execution, Sikth has all the elements to create a band that will stand out amongst the rest. Now I don’t want to rag on the vokills too much, because for the most part they are fine and quite enjoyable at times. There are just certain moments when they just rub me the wrong way. As I mentioned earlier there are two singers, Mikee Goodman and Justin Hill. I don’t know who handles what as there are a variety of vokill styles on here. The best way I can think to describe the screaming ones are a mix of Mike Patton (Faith No More, etc….) and Serj Tanaken (System of a Down) in that they are just off the wall and crazy. There are also some well executed clean vokills that are very upbeat and melodic, but never come across as too cheesy. The guitar riffs of Pin and Dan W. are a display of a good jazz background and the ability to create some good melodic music. To me, I see a huge At the Drive In vibe coming across on the guitars with spastic riffing, but still able to walk that fine line before hitting absolute chaos. There are often melodic breaks though where full on structure takes shape. The bass playing of James Leach is also very impressive as he is not afraid to show he knows his way around the fret board. Lastly, Dan Foord rounds up the six-piece on drums. With lots of start and stop beats and nice fills he gets the job done. Despite obtaining absolute musical chaos at times, Sikth still manages to craft a catchy song that will have your head bobbing with ease. With top notch production there’s not too much one can really complain about here, except the strange break the album takes in the middle. The offending tracks here would be, “Tupelo” and “Can’t we all Dream”. Now possibly if these were shorter tracks they wouldn’t be so agonizing to listen to, but I’ve come to the point where I just can’t listen to them anymore. With a combined effort to reach a fifteen minute crap break, these tracks are sure to drive anyone nuts. They are pretty much devoid of “music” per say and choose to take a more ambient, avantgarde pace where the vokills, although they fit well with the other music, just become atrocious and down right annoying. If you were to abolish these two songs completely you would have quite the album here, but unfortunately they still mare it with their presence. Despite this, I still encourage you to check out this band, as they do offer some down-right good music to listen to and there’s always that that little button to skip tracks so you can just pretend the above mentioned offenders don’t exist.

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Sikth

The Trees Are Dead and Dried Out

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