Last night, Scale the Summit played Kobo. Accompanied on the bill were: Today I Caught The Plague, Bless The Child, Shall Be The Conqueror, and From Another Planet. I was there early enough to catch a few minutes of hardcore, metal band and Hilliard residents, Bless the Child. I never thought some dudes from Hilliard in a metal band would instantly make me look up their next show while they unloaded their equipment.
The crowd was more diverse than I expected, consisting of a mix of metalheads and business-type men. There were also a lot more women than I’m used to seeing, as metal shows can sometimes be a gentlemen’s club.
Scale the Summit started with a soundtrack of rain, as guitar players Chris Letchford, Travis Levrier, and bass player Mark Mitchell stood stoically in anticipation of the show.
The crowd was instantly into them as soon as the first note was played. I observed a guy wearing thick black framed glasses fingering along to the bass parts of the songs, and honestly multiple others fingering along with guitar and bass parts as if in their own sort of band practice. In the front stood a loyal crowd of about 30-35 who knew every drop, and every change of rhythm and switch in time signature. This is extremely impressive since this band is completely instrumental.
The set was completely solid and the members are obviously in tune with one another. In other bands, there seems to be one person that has a higher energy level than others on the stage. This wasn’t the case with this band. They don’t look at each other for guidance and forge ahead as a steam train that feeds only on the head-bobbing of the crowd. There seems to be no effort produced, but everything is executed like a well oiled machine.
Their sound is not doom, nor death metal — but it’s relatively easy to follow, and has the components of a stereotypical metal band. Heavy bass, double pedal bass drums, and unpredictable rhythms were produced, but somehow all of it flows with ease amongst all of the heaviness.
The songs were all different, but somehow still seemed repetitive. Perhaps because there were no vocals besides the rare in-between introductions of songs as well as the announcement that they were going to play an 80 minute set.
I was impressed in the beginning, but kind of just wanted someone to end my slow torture of pure boredom and the desire to be awed. It’s like metal you’d listen to on a car trip with your parents as not to offend. And, if I had to place it into a genre, “adventure metal” is the only name that came to mind — which happens to be the name of their tour.
It’s hard, it’s rock, it’s good, just not mind-blowing.