Album Review: Storm the Sky – Sin Will Find You

Over the past decade, post hardcore and metalcore have seen a surge in success unlike anything the genres have seen before. Many of the bigger labels started taking notice and packed their rosters full of artists within the realm of “core” music and before long, some of the most influential bands in the scene were headlining tours worldwide. While the genre continues to expand at a rapid pace, the past few years have seen some of the bigger acts at a crossroad as they take a different stylistic approach and aim for a new crowd; the mainstream. This is where Melbourne, Australia post hardcore outfit Storm the Sky finds themselves as they announced in January that their screamer, Daniel Breen had left. With the band no longer having a dedicated unclean vocalist, assumptions arose as to where the band was heading. Those assumptions were quickly put to rest with the release of ‘’S.W.F.Y’’, the first taste of the new sound they’ve dubbed as death-pop. A sound that would find itself at the center of the band’s sophomore album Sin Will Find You, the result of a 9-month journey of finding themselves. Not unlike other bands who change genres and seek a bigger audience, the first thing that comes to mind is, does this new sound work for them?

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Genre: Death Pop | Rock
Label: UNFD / Rise Records
Release: August 5, 2016
Connect: Facebook | Twitter
Purchase: MerchNow | iTunes | Google Play
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Upon hitting play, there are a few immediate aspects that come across in where the album is going sonically and stylistically. Many artists within the genre attempt to either use a brief instrumental intro track or amp it up to 11 right away, showing how hard hitting and aggressive they can sound. Neither is the case here as “Second Best” opens up with a somber guitar as the percussion builds laying the foundation for the track before vocalist William Jarratt comes on showcasing a new, sultry vocal approach. Littered throughout the track and showcased throughout the entirety of the album are skittered electronics helping create a more atmospheric style. Enhanced further by moodier lyrical content, deeper tones and more emphasis on musicality and composition, this isn’t the Storm the Sky that surfaced with Permanence. For those hoping there are still remnants of their older, heavier style, they exist but are sparsely used. Tracks like “Jaded Ghost”, “Carcinova” and “S.W.F.Y.” retain a more frantic pace with rampant instrumentals and carefully placed screams, but they really aren’t a true representation of Sin Will Find You.

Storm The Sky – Lilac [Official Music Video]

‘Lilac’ is taken from the new Storm The Sky album ‘Sin Will Find You’ – Out August 5th via UNFD / Rise Records.

The easiest way to speak upon what Sin Will Find You offers is to explore its creation including the depths of which it was created from. This is a record that is not only about self-reflection, but about the raw reality of life while it explores someone’s former and current hardships. From a lyrical standpoint, it contains a collection of songs about love, cheating, drugs and friendship coming across as brutally honest. From a musical standpoint, it wouldn’t be fair to call it an evolution in sound; rather it’s a progression and sees a band grow into where they are ultimately comfortable. This is showcased in tracks like “Wake Up Sleeping”, “Disappointed” and “Burning”, which see the band fully developed with an even deeper, moodier tone in the instrumentation while adding various vocal and background effects for ambience helping listeners get a feeling of what death-pop is all about.

Quantifying what listeners can expect and will ultimately hear with Sin Will Find You is a hard thing to do. As a record, this is to Storm the Sky as That’s The Spirit was to Bring Me the Horizon and Restoring Force was to Of Mice & Men; albums that changed fans and listeners perspectives and expectations of the band and show a level of growth, maturity and progression rarely found in what had been becoming a slowly stale sound. The currently released singles represent the nuances and atmospheric tendencies that this record contains, but the true and everlasting impression is made upon a full play-through.  With a massive shift in sound, mood and tone, this will most likely cause fan divisiveness, but at the heart of this record is a musical journey that showcases what personal struggle intermixed with self-acceptance and creativity can do for not only a person, but a band as a whole.