Progressive Instrumental Pioneers Scale The Summit Celebrate Five-Year Anniversary of Carving Desert Canyons with First-Ever Vinyl Pressing
Pre-orders available now; band’s US/CAN tour with Glass Cloud continues through Aug. 21
Scale the Summit in early 2014 ~ photo by Francois Poulin for FW
2014 ~ photo by Francois Poulin
As 2008 came to a close, heavy music was beginning to show signs of a transformation. At the top of the food chain, Metallica was actively promoting their new album Death Magnetic, but year-end “Best-of” lists were instead populated with adventurous, forward-thinking acts like Opeth, Meshuggah, Enslaved, Gojira, and the recently reunited Cynic. 2008 was also the first year in more than a decade with no Ozzfest tour, which furthered the sense of an imminent paradigm shift for the genre.
In a different climate, a group that specialized in instrumental melodic progressive metal might have struggled to catch people’s attention. Luckily for SCALE THE SUMMIT, though, the time was right to make an immediate impact. The group had already self-released one well-received album, but their Prosthetic debut Carving Desert Canyons ~ released in February of 2009 ~ formally introduced the Texas quartet to the world at large. Its timeless, classic-minded progressive hard rock was hailed by Guitar World as “…full of tightly-woven guitar interplay, irregular time signatures and tasteful licks…,” while Revolver called the album “…a cinematic blast of intricately melodic fretwork and pummeling percussion…..”
Mike Portnoy ~ photo by SethM for FW
The biggest endorsement of all, however, came from drum legend Mike Portnoy, who hand-picked SCALE THE SUMMIT to open Dream Theater’s “Progressive Nation” summer tour that year. Additional tours with Protest The Hero, Between The Buried and Me, Cynic and Devin Townsend capped off an incredible 12 months that cemented the group’s arrival on the scene and solidified their reputation as a rising star in contemporary metal.
To celebrate the album’s five-year anniversary, Prosthetic Records is proud to release Carving Desert Canyons on vinyl for the first time. Available in select record shops on August 19, the LP ~ which features a 24-point matte record jacket with enhanced art that re-frames the striking cover image for maximum impact ~ is now available for pre-order in both 180-gram black and standard-weight deep blue variants.
Last week, SCALE THE SUMMIT kicked off a five-week North American tour with Glass Cloud, Erra , Reflections and Monuments. The group’s remaining dates are listed below:
7/24 Grand Rapids, MI – The Stache #
7/25 Chicago, IL – Reggies #
7/26 Burnsville, MN – The Garage #
7/27 Winnipeg, MB – West End Cultural Centre #
7/28 Regina, SK – The Exchange
Photo by Francois Poulin for FW
7/29 Calgary, AB – The Den #
7/30 Kelowna, BC – Rutland Centennial Hall
7/31 Vancouver, BC – The Rio Theatre #
8/1 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey #
8/2 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre #
8/3 Oakland, CA – Oakland Metro #
8/4 Los Angeles, CA – The Lyric #
8/5 Las Vegas, NV – Southern Nevada Sports #
8/6 Mesa, AZ – The Underground #
8/7 Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad #
8/8 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater #
8/9 Lawrence, KS – Jackpot #
8/10 St. Louis, MO – Fubar #
8/11 Columbus, OH – Park Street Saloon #
8/12 Knoxville, TN – The Concourse #
8/13 Greensboro, NC – Blind Tiger #
8/14 Jacksonville, FL – 1904 Music Hall #
8/15 Pembroke Pines, FL – Propaganda #
8/16 Orlando, FL – Backbooth #
8/17 Atlanta, GA – Vinyl @ Center Stage #
8/19 Fort Worth, TX – Tomcats #
8/20 Austin, TX – Red 7 #
8/21 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s #
# with Glass Cloud, Erra, Reflections & Monuments
Scale the Summit is:
Chris Letchford ~ 7 & 8 string guitars, Travis Levrier ~ 7 string guitar, Mark Michell ~ 6 string bass, Pat Skeffington ~ drums, percussion
2014 ~ photo by Francois Poulin