Redwoods - Single

...it just didn't make the final album tracklist. For you guys worried about lack of progress forward, this song is not from a future album. This song was recording with other songs from The Collective, hence the similarities. Don't worry, Scale the Summit know better than we do about growing and expanding sounds. As for the song itself, incredibly uplifting. It's in C Major, so of course it's positive. It's simple yet intricate as any STS song would be. There are some downright beautiful moments to this song, and beauty isn't something STS showcases very often. The ending is really quite strong, and if this song had been kept on the album it would have fit nicely at the end, right after the epic but cliffhanging end to Drifting Figures. 5 stars for Redwoods!

This is Scale the Summit doing what they have definitively proven they do best by means of their most recent LP, The Collective. This is Scale the Summit creating memorable melodies and fabricating out of thin air soft, relaxing soundscapes of superb instrumentation the likes of which are, in my opinion, unparalleled in the instrumental music industry. So why a 4? Well, despite the fact that I gave The Collective a straight up 5/5, I wanted to see in this single some sort of advancement from The Collective. Right now it just sounds like they took the same ideas and inspiration from The Collective and decided to make another song. Still a great song, though; it's just been done before (by them). I'm sure the next album will be another masterpiece though…. after all, this is just a single.

Who gives a crap if they're "doing something new" or "being original" or "pushing the boundries" with a single? That's something they might do with a full-length, and even so, Scale the Summit is and always has been about writing good, heart-felt music, and this song is no exception. It's beautiful. Chris Letchford is one of the most soulful and talented guitar players of today, and this song shows off his abilities extremely well. Another point I feel I should make is that Scale the Summit's music is not about technical proficiency or intricacy. In fact, if you look at they direction they've progressed since Monument, their music has become decidedly less complex and difficult to perform, and more about bringing out the meaning and personality of each of the members and their artistic and creative senses. Any musician that is worth noting will tell you that just because you *can* do something on your instrument doesn't mean you *should.*

Scale The Summit's previous full-length, "The Collective" was the band improving, getting more intricate, putting more emotion into the songs. This single sounds like a regression to me. I like to see prog bands push themselves farther into new territories, to push music forward as a whole. This track imho isn't doing that and I hope this isn't indicative of the follow up to "The Collective".