Azure Skies consists of members of Mental Destruction and Sanctum. With such a line-up you expect something interesting of course. And this album certainly lives up to that expectation. Mental Destruction is known for harshness and noisy eruptions, while Sanctum and related projects are more melodic and emotional. That combination is perfectly mixed here into an organic fusion.
The first song’ Crater’ directly is a highlight, the soft touching melody makes me think of Mago, but then with some distorted rhythms and metal percussion added. Softer parts, as silences before the storm, alternate with harder parts. Excellent material, with a nice dose of variety and tension. ‘Deniability’ is more of a rhythmic industrial piece, monotonous and relentness, at times accelarating to a danceable speed. Very lovely is ‘Hydrazine’, with a surprising combination of steady machinery and delicate piano sounds.
Another favourite is ‘Collapse’, one of the more suited tracks for the industrial dancefloor, with harsh rhyhmic industrial and heavily distorted power electronics- style vocals. But just as the rest of the music on this album, this track is not just violent, it also is moving. A further highlight is ‘Bring nothing back’, with combines heavy, somewhat ethnic percussion with soft strings. It is the song with the most prominent vocals, shouting masculine ones.
A succeeded album, where rawness and subtleties go hand in hand. Oppposites attract?
