While based in Colorado, USA, Obsidian Skies creates music in the sci-fi realm, transporting listeners to grandiose worlds set to epic progressive melodic death metal. The duo of Logan Dougherty (guitars/piano/orchestration) and Tim Watervoort (guitars/basses/vocals) use their backgrounds in physics, astrophysics, composition, and linguistics to elevate the themes, structure, and performance of their music. After working steadily over the past couple of years, they are thrilled to announce their spacey debut EP “Saturnian” (mixed and mastered by Tom MacLean (ex-Haken, Athemon, Brutta)) and the first single “Home“.
“Home” is less of a story, but more of one man’s lament for his former home and the exploration of his emotions. He goes through cycles of culture shock and a longing for a world that is no more. Eventually, he comes to terms with his situation and sees the potential in his new home. Starting with an acoustic guitar, “Home” is lighter than the other tracks on the EP, much of this song feels like one that could be sung around a campfire, thinking of days gone by. When the distorted guitars enter, they serve more to provide foundation than a true featured part to keep with the aesthetic. Harsh vocals are present in this song, but to a much smaller degree than the other two. Harmonically, this song features jazzy major 7th chords to give it a warmer feel. The band comments on the track:
“When we first came up with the concept of this song, we knew we wanted a more intimate, acoustic piece, but we were honestly afraid that it would not turn out at all how we envisioned. When we began writing it, we had two disjointed riffs that we knew we wanted in the song but no real way of transitioning between them. Since the song is so vocally driven, it was difficult to get a grasp of what it would sound like before it was recorded. Hearing the first playthrough of it after recording (but before mixing) was a sigh of relief for both of us as we had actually managed to pull it together. This song definitely “fell into place” more than the other two did.”
The EP follows the story of humankind abandoning Earth for Saturn’s moon Titan. The emotional and physical struggles of leaving our home planet are explored through both the music and the lyrics. Obsidian Skies hopes to take the listener through this journey in a concept album, but they believe the songs are capable of standing on their own as well.
