SikTh – ‘The Future In Whose Eyes?’ (Album Review)
Calling SikTh’s new album one of the most hotly anticipated of 2017 is like calling Donald Trump a foul, delusional sociopath. Both statements are pretty dramatic – but they also happen to be one hundred percent true.
Like the current political climate, SikTh’s history has proven both turbulent and unpredictable. Having broken up following groundbreaking long-players The Trees Are Dead And Dried Out, Wait For Something Wild and Death Of A Dead Day; reunited for 2015’s Opacities mini-album; and then split amicably with co-vocalist Justin Hill following one final show at last year’s Camden Rocks Festival (reviewed here), SikTh seem to have finally landed on solid, stable ground. The Future In Whose Eyes Is the resulting on-record career landmark.
It is a fucking beast.
With the addition of Aliases vocalist Joe Rosser, SikTh have evolved Pokémon-like into something familiar, but different enough to guarantee a fair amount of controversy among their long-time followers. As with SikTh’s djent-oriented offspring Periphery and TesseracT, such a tectonic lineup shift will naturally lead to aftershocks – but for me, Joe Rosser has proven himself to be more than worthy of the enviable position he’s been so recently assigned. Mikee Goodman may have written all of the lyrics and vocal parts this time around, but whether he’s dropping tasty vocal harmonies into Century Of The Narcissist or blending perfectly with Mikee on Riddles Of Humanity, Rosser steps up consistently throughout The Future In Whose Eyes – and the Internet’s trolls and haters would do well to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they could pull off the same feat.
At the time of writing, two tracks from The Future In Whose Eyes are currently out there in the world – but neither No Wishbones nor Vivid are the best tracks on here. The first three quarters of No Wishbones make up this album’s sole weak spot, made up for by one of the best beatdown sections SikTh have ever written. Vivid, on the other hand, is fucking sick from its opening Periphery hat-tip to its hard-grooving djent-tinged outro – through, of course, that OTT-solo-into-immense-tempo-drop.
Having acclimatised myself to SikTh’s music over the course of many years, it’s tough to judge this accurately, but The Future In Whose Eyes at least feels like their most accessible album to date. There’s a clear focus on rhythmic intensity and The All-Important Groove this time out, with mind-boggling technical moments still present but deployed at optimal points. Fans of the latter will find themselves endlessly repeating standout moments Weavers Of Woe (complete with intricate guitar tapestries and even a clean psychedelic bridge), Cracks Of Light (including a winning cameo from Periphery vocalist Spencer Sotelo, vicious riffage, and even a brief foray into spicy death metal), and Ride The Illusion – on which guitarists Pin and Dan Weller duel for their lives.
All of this leaves The Aura (where accessibility and serpentine musicianship sit perfectly balanced), Golden Cufflinks (a slow-burning groove metal monster), obligatory and perpetually welcome spoken-word interludes This Ship Has Sailed and The Moon’s Been Gone For Hours, and album closer When It Rains, which ends The Future In Whose Eyes with the aid of more spoken word poetry, chilled synth-swells, and distant wave-static that brought Robert Fripp’s experimental soundscape work to mind. The latter three tracks pose an intriguing question: Do they only feature Mikee, as we’d expect, or are we also hearing Joe Rosser as well?
So far, I’m stumped on that front – but there’s no doubting that SikTh have completed a mission that would crush and demoralise the average band beyond repair. They’ve dug their roots deeper into metal’s still-fertile soil and pushed their branches further skywards, connecting with both bedrock and clouds in the process. Lyrically, The Future In Whose Eyes continues to explore SikTh’s core value – defiant, disturbed nonconformity – and as a whole, this album will be remembered as proof that impossibility is merely an illusion.
100% (Essential Listening!)
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Pre-order The Future In Whose Eyes here.