Since A Skylit Drive emerged within the scene with their EP release, She Watched the Sky, ASD has since managed to spike a glass of soda with a fine poured rum of musicianship, creative madness, live worthy performances and not to mention a colossal amount of support from fans all across the nation. Four studio albums later carries us to A Skylit Drive’s most recent release, Rise: Ascension – an acoustic rendition of their latest release, Rise.
Rise: Ascension captures a moment in time worthy of a great set of headphones and a tempo that does not feel rushed, leaving space for your heart to beat along with the rhythm. Save No Tragedy is the album opener and with no time wasted lead vocalist Michael Jagmin demonstrates a cunning display of resilience and assurance with his range of vocal capabilities. An appropriate balance of writing techniques generating heaps of luster and clarity in his voice throughout this record. And with much thanks to platinum producer Jim Wirt (Incubus, Something Corporate, The Rocket Summer), every track is coded with a sense of quality that resonates in my ears even with the expiration of each song.
The guitar tones are voluminous with an edge of definition that supports guitarists Nick Miller and Kyle Simmons’s finger picking, hammer-ons, pull-offs and picked harmonics. I really enjoy the attention to detail when it came to mixing the shear brightness of the cymbals with the acoustic guitars, spilling expansive and sundry sounds all over. Just to seal the deal ASD performs an abundant amount of vocal harmonies that link charmingly with piano and cello’s throughout the tracks Crash Down, Crazy, Pendulum, Said and Done and Wide Awake. I can only hope to hear A Skylit Drive prevail another acoustic album in the near future, and see just how far they can push the envelope. Thanks for reading, enjoy this one peeps!
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