''Nevaeh'' is the only album by Design the Skyline. It was released on August 16, 2011 through

Victory Records Victory Records is a Chicago-based record label founded by Tony Brummel. It operates a music publishing company called "Another Victory, Inc." and is the distributor of several record labels. It has featured many prominent artists including Thur ...

Background

The band had ideas to start work on a debut album after changing their name from Extra Large Kids to Design the Skyline. Initially the members set plans to release a full-length titled, ''Synthetic Cities'' which even had its own artwork completed along with many of its songs recorded and planned but were never fully finished or mastered. The project was abandoned. The reason for this was due to the band aspiring to pursue a completely different and more "mature" sound than what they had originally interpreted after their signing to Victory in May. ''Nevaeh'' was then written and recorded by the course of May through July 2011. The album spawned two singles; "Break Free from Your Life" and "Cybernetic Strawflower" before its release.

Sound and musical structure

The band has cited

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and

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

as some of the influences for the album's musical structure.

Reception

The critical reaction to ''Nevaeh'' was mostly mixed, with praise going toward's the band's dramatic sound change from that of the sound displayed on " Surrounded by Silence", but criticism for the album's production as well as its "generic" material. Colin McNamara of The Metal Forge gave the album a seven out of ten, saying that ''Nevaeh'' "will attract listeners who are sick of the usual

deathcore Deathcore is an extreme metal subgenre that combines death metal with metalcore. The genre consists of death metal guitar riffs, blast beats, and metalcore breakdowns. While there are some precursors to the concept of death metal fused with met ...

formula" and that the album's musicianship was "well-rounded and each track approaches in a furious, etinnovative way." Thrashmag.com gave the album three stars out of a possible five, saying that Design the Skyline "really shows prowess in their experimental side" and that "''Nevaeh'' shows glimmers of hope for those who want something to remember." In the most critical review of the album, James Shotwell of UnderTheGunReview.net gave the album a zero out of 10, saying that ''Nevaeh'' was "simply not that good". However, many readers of the site were critical of the review itself. Aleksi Pertola of Rockfreaks.net also gave the album a negative review, saying "it is a haphazard mish mash of all things popular in the scene at the moment, with left foot in deathcore, right foot in electronically enhanced post-hardcore, and middle foot in a

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groupie's mouth."

Track listing

Personnel

;Design the Skyline *John Martian -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Matt Ryan -

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

, programming *James "Keebler" Lemos -

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s *Julian "Julian Reckless" Ibanez -

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

*Ethan White -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

clean vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

on "Break Free from Your Life" *Austin Lathum -

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

*Eric Azure - lead vocals ;Production * Produced, mixed and

mastered Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...

by Robert Beltran

References

{{Authority control 2011 debut albums Design the Skyline albums Victory Records albums