The Music Behind The Screaming

As mentioned in the previous blogs, heavy metal music with screaming in it is not highly favored by society. Most people consider this style of music to be painful to listen to, and why shouldn't it be? It's looked at as an angry style of music due to the history of metal, as well as the "Heavy" sound of the instruments and screaming.

However, I must say that Sky Eats Airplane is not at all your typical hardcore band. As opposed to syncopated, chugging 4/4 breakdowns and basic of use of the Minor Scale, Sky Eats Airplane branches out to the most obscure, complicated, and technical aspects of music.
They incorporate...

• Odd Time Signatures (5/4, 7/4, 9/4)
• Very Little Repetition
• Use of all notes, not only one scale (Dorian, Phrygian, and use of Tritone/M7 particularly!)
• Post-Song Techno Interlude/Transitions (Between nearly every song, some sort of electronic transition. This really adds a lot of depth when listening to the album through!)
• Nearly Constant Vocals during songs, giving the listener a bank of lyrics. 
• Vocal Harmonies, Clean/Rough Vocals
• A Variety of Genres in Every Song (Electronic, Metal, Hardcore, Nintendocore, Ambient, Alternative, and even Jazz Elements)
• Heavy Transitioning throughout Songs (Song may be screaming one moment, calm the next)
• Odd Rhythmic Beats (Which fit well to the time signature, but are very tricky to follow)
• Powerful Leader Guitar (Sweeping, Tapping, Legato, Shred, and all with clever note choice)
• A Versatile Drummer (While this guy can shred drums, he also knows when to pull back, which is very important, and emphasizes the song.)

If you couldn't tell, I am a HUGE fan, particularly of this album. The beauty of it is that when all of these elements come together, it creates more than a CD with 11 Tracks on it. It becomes a dynamic story, with twists and turns, and always an entirely new melody around the corner. To me it is clear that every moment of this album was precariously hand-crafted, and the final product personally hits me home. Even the lyrics touch me truly, and I've noticed that the music is very molded according to the emotion of the current word being spoken. 

However, this complicated method of writing music often deters many listeners. I believe particularly those with an understanding of music/theory, or that play music are the people that can most enjoy and appreciate Sky Eats Airplane. The majority of the people though find music this technical to be random or chaotic. Melodies not in 4/4 or 3/4 become hard to follow, and what really guides the listener through these odd time signatures is the vocals, which for many people is something else difficult to listen to. 

For some great examples of their different techniques, check out the following songs!

• For a crazy time signature, listen to the intro of Disconnected, Numbers, or Long Walks on Short Bridges!
• For crazy shredding guitar, listen to Machines!
• For a soft, All singing song, listen to In Retrospect!
• For great techno transitions, listen to the ending of The Artificial, Transparent, or Disconnected!
• For VERY Odd Rhythmic Beats, listen to the picking pattern in the chorus of Numbers!