Turbyne – Arc

Turbyne is a six-piece band from Scotland, who describe themselves as Progressive Metal with an undefinable sound. A group of longtime collaborators, musical prodigies, and bitter rivals have combined their talents to create a multi-faceted beast. That would all seem to be perfectly reflected on their new album “Arc”. It is indeed a complex fusion of many influences and styles, which each musician has individually brought to the table.

The opening track ‘Luna’ is a melodic instrumental that eases you into the album. It has an odd couple of bars thrown in near the end, that sound like Dream Theater. This tranquility is soon shattered as we ‘Enter the Labyrinth’, and here we are introduced to not one, but two vocalists. Gary Gillespie and Keith Fleming share the vocals, singing both clean and gutturals, in a fast-paced number with shades of NWOBHM mixed with Death Metal.

You could be forgiven for thinking that you are listening to different bands as you move from track to track. Not only is there a wide range of musical styles across the album, but that also applies to certain songs. This is particularly true of the longer numbers still to come, but ‘Cursebreaker’ is also a good example, swapping as it does, from intricate keyboards to a full-on metal workout with some more melodic intervals. Nicely embedded in all of this, is a technical instrumental passage with some neat guitar and bass from Calum Walker and Ryan Todd.

Turbyne – Cursebreaker (click here if the video does not play)

Although this varied pattern continues across most of the album, there are some exceptions, such as ‘Inferno’ which despite its title, is one of the mellowest songs. It is bereft of multiple changes and has clean singing only. Nestled in amongst the long numbers toward the end of the album, ‘Teraflare’ is a hard hitting, fast paced headbanger, sandwiched between a synth intro and outro. The longer numbers, ‘Mythos-Dark Aeons’, ‘Light Pillars’ and ‘Atlas Road’ take up almost half an hour between them. They are all different, varied, and definitely something to get your teeth into.

Whether they stick to this multi genre approach, or in time move more towards one of them, remains to be seen. For me, some bits work better than others, but the tech-metal parts sound the best. Of course, that is where my preference lies, so it’s only my opinion. Scotland has produced its fair share of great bands, and these guys are well on the way to joining that list, or maybe even there already.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Luna 4.18
2. Enter the Labyrinth 5.53
3. Cursebreaker 6.26
4. Inferno 6.27
5. i. Mythos ii. Dark Aeons 10.46
6. Light Pillars 8.47
7. Teraflare 4.27
8. Atlas Road 10.32