Like Underoath, From First To Last and Coheed and Cambria? Then you will love A Skylit Drive, a band who borrow very heavily from all three of those bands and, to be fair, do a reasonable, if unoriginal, job of it. There’s an air of predictability about some of the riffs and breakdowns, and with the vocals sounding a little like Claudio Sanchez there’s perhaps an unfair ‘heard-it-all-before’ feel just seconds into ‘Knights of the Round’. But stick with this long enough and scratch away at the surface and there’s a relatively good album here.
‘City on the Edge of Forever’ and the album’s title track are both good steady songs showcasing a decent ability to write, and hold, a tune. And while the more jaded among us would argue this is a musical genre done to death – and it is – at least the band mix up the soft and the heavy well, write catchy choruses and know how to break it all down and keep it quiet when they need to. It’s not groundbreaking and it’s far from essential, but well worth a listen if you’re in need of new music.