MetalSucks

Remember SiKth, the best band of 2007 that didn’t actually release a record in 2007? Equal parts Meshuggah, Between the Buried and Me, Porcupine Tree, Dillinger Escape Plan and Tool, SiKth are really the artist’s artist — every single detail of everything has meaning and is thought out completely. Their 2006 release Death of a Dead Day has literally been blowing the minds of everyone I’ve played it for, which is pretty much anyone who lays foot in the MetalSucks Mansion. Yet why has no one in America heard of this U.K.-based prog-metal powerhouse?

Thanks to our boy Frank @ MetalInjection we’ve unearthed some of the band’s music videos and live clips. First, a proper story-telling narrative music video for the album’s first track “Bland Street Bloom,” then a video of live footage from various shows of the song “Flogging Horses,” which shows just how amazing the musicianship is. Word on the street is that the band needs two new singers — can someone get on that ASAP so we can see them live, please? Mmmkay, thanks.

-VN

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/cAyqaLpJTQg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Am4YlNf0WJ0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Publicists send us shit all the time, and 9 out of 10 times it blows goats but we listen anyway because every now and then there’s that occasional gem that shocks you and makes hours of brain-drilling listening all worth it.. Sikth’s Death of a Dead Day — originally released in 2006 — is that fucking good.

UK-based Sikth’s own brand of progressive metal mixes the breakneck hardcore spazzes and jazz freakouts of Dillinger Escape Plan or Between the Buried and Me, time-warp rhythms of Meshuggah, metallic melody of Dream Theater and bone-crushing breakdowns of Hatebreed all into one neat little package. But the band possesses a sense of songwriting and melody, like their UK prog-metal brethren Porcupine Tree, in which those bands rarely indulge. The musicianship all around is stellar, and vocalist Mikee Goodman shows a surprisingly versatile vocal approach, ranging from singing to screaming, growling, shouting, and everything in between. (According to Sikth’s MySpace page Goodman has moved on and they are searching for a new frontman. Hear that, aspiring vocalists?)

What’s more, the band produced Death of a Dead Day entirely themselves, with a precision mix job coming from Bieler Bros. Records (helmed by Jason Bieler, ex-Saigon Kick!) go-to-guy Matt LaPlant (Nonpoint, Skindred, Burn Season).

Why has no one ever mentioned this band before to me or anyone at the MetalSucks Mansion? This. Record. Fucking. Rules. The #1 sleeper hit of 2007 in my book, even though it was released in June of ‘06. See for yourself, below.

Sikth – “Bland Street Bloom”

Sikth – “Part of the Friction”

-VN

(four out of five horns)

[Visit Sikth on MySpace]