Skyharbor is an Indian/American
progressive metal
Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified guitar-driven sound of the former with the more experimental, cerebral ...
band with members from
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...
and
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
, India; and
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, US.
History
The band was initially guitarist Keshav Dhar's studio project, before
TesseracT
In geometry, a tesseract is the four-dimensional analogue of the cube; the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of six square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of e ...
vocalist Daniel Tompkins contacted Dhar with an interest in collaborating with him in October 2010. Around the same time, Dhar and Maryland-based drummer Anup Sastry (
Jeff Loomis
Jeff Loomis (born September 14, 1971) is an American musician, best known for his role as lead guitarist in the progressive metal band Nevermore during its existence from 1991 to 2011, as well as brief tenures in its precursor, Sanctuary. In ...
,
Intervals
Interval may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Interval (mathematics), a range of numbers
** Partially ordered set#Intervals, its generalization from numbers to arbitrary partially ordered sets
* A statistical level of measurement
* Interval e ...
), who had uploaded several videos of himself performing Skyharbor songs to his YouTube channel, discussed the possibility of taking the material to the live stage. Roping in bassist Nikhil Rufus Raj, the band performed for the first time as an instrumental three-piece at the 2011 Bacardi
NH7 Weekender festival.
''Blinding White Noise'' (2011–2013)
After signing with
Basick Records
Basick Records is a British record label founded in 2005 by Nathan "Barley" Phillips and his half brother Jake Smith. Their business has since expanded into the Invictus Music & Media group, which includes Basick Records itself, the hardcore pu ...
, the band released its debut album ''
Blinding White Noise: Illusion and Chaos'' on 23 April 2012 worldwide as a double-disc album (''Illusion'' and ''Chaos''), featuring vocalists Tompkins and Sunneith Revankar from
Bhayanak Maut on each disc respectively. The album consisted almost entirely of refined versions of Dhar's early demos. In an interview, drummer Anup Sastry described the band as "all Keshav at first, he never actually planned to take the music live. The pieces just kind of fell into place one by one. I remember asking him if he would be ok with me making a couple of Youtube videos for a few of his tunes. It basically just went from there." The tracks "Catharsis" and "Celestial" also featured guest solos by
Marty Friedman
Marty Friedman (born December 8, 1962) is an American guitarist, best known for his tenure as the lead guitarist for thrash metal band Megadeth from 1990 to 2000. He is also known for playing alongside Jason Becker in Cacophony from 1986 unti ...
of
Megadeth fame. Not long after the release of the album, Skyharbor announced Daniel Tompkins as their official lead singer.
In May 2012 they supported American groove metal band
Lamb of God on the India date of their 2012 world tour, after being handpicked by drummer
Chris Adler. This show saw the addition of Goddess Gagged guitarist Devesh Dayal to the line-up. Adler went on to praise Skyharbor in an interview with ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' magazine. Skyharbor made their debut European appearance with an exclusive show at Euroblast Festival in Cologne, Germany. The band capped off a successful year with two headline shows in India in December.
Skyharbor performed on the 2nd day of the 2013 UK Tech Metal Festival as main support to headliners
Veil of Maya
Veil of Maya is an American metalcore band, formed in Chicago, Illinois, by members Marc Okubo and Sam Applebaum in 2004. They are currently signed to Sumerian Records and have released six studio albums. Their first four albums are considered ...
, followed by a mini-tour of Russia with Monuments and
TesseracT
In geometry, a tesseract is the four-dimensional analogue of the cube; the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of six square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of e ...
. Skyharbor quickly followed this up with a second appearance at Euroblast Festival and their first UK headline tour in October 2013, before taking a break from live shows to record their second studio album.
''Guiding Lights'' (2013–2015)
In late 2013, Skyharbor announced that Nikhil Rufus Raj had amicably left the group, and was replaced by Goddess Gagged bassist Krishna Jhaveri, who had filled in on bass for the October European/UK tour. The band stated they would be taking a break from live performances to focus on recording their follow-up to ''Blinding White Noise'', and that the writing process was a much more collaborative process than on the debut.
Skyharbor continued performing at summer festivals in 2014 when they performed at
Download Festival and
Graspop Metal Meeting
Graspop Metal Meeting is a Belgian heavy metal festival held in Dessel each year since 1996, excluding 2020 and 2021 due to covid restrictions. Despite the small size of the festival grounds (upholding a perimeter of only ~4 km) the festiva ...
, along with a short run of headline shows in Europe where they played a considerable amount of new material. The new songs showcased a style with a much greater emphasis on progressive arrangements and ambient soundscapes than their earlier guitar riff-driven work.
In June 2014, Skyharbor announced that they would be crowd-funding the production of their second album with
PledgeMusic
PledgeMusic was an online direct-to-fan music platform, launched in August 2009. It was started to facilitate musicians looking to pre-sell, market, and distribute projects; such as recordings and concerts. It bore similarities to other artist p ...
, and working with Australian producer Forrester Savell (
Karnivool
Karnivool is an Australian progressive rock band formed in Perth in 1997. The group currently consists of Ian Kenny on vocals, Drew Goddard and Mark Hosking on guitar, Jon Stockman on bass, and Steve Judd on drums. Karnivool emerged from a band ...
,
The Butterfly Effect
''The Butterfly Effect'' is a 2004 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber. It stars Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Eric Stoltz, William Lee Scott, Elden Henson, Logan Lerman, Ethan Suplee, and ...
,
Dead Letter Circus
Dead Letter Circus are an Australian alternative rock band from Brisbane, Queensland. Their 2010 debut album ''This Is the Warning'' debuted at No. 2 on the Australian album charts and spawned a number of singles that were played heavily o ...
) as well as animator Jess Cope (
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosi ...
,
Devin Townsend
Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...
) for a music video. The fundraising campaign was a success, with the target being achieved in a month. During the course of the campaign, the band released the first single and video from their second album titled 'Evolution'. The Jess Cope-directed video for 'Patience' was released three months later.
Skyharbor released their second album ''
Guiding Lights'' worldwide via Basick Records on 10 November 2014 and followed it up with a launch tour in India, capping off with a headline set at the
NH7 Weekender festival, 3 years after making their live debut opening the same stage.
''Sunshine Dust'' (2015-present)
In March 2015, the band embarked on an extensive 29-date Europe and UK co-headlining tour with Australian post-rock outfit sleepmakeswaves and Polish group Tides From Nebula. On 23 June 2015 Skyharbor announced via their Facebook page that they had amicably parted ways with drummer Anup Sastry. His full-time replacement was announced as Aditya Ashok. On 29 June, it was announced that Tompkins had stepped down as the group's frontman as well, citing touring and scheduling difficulties. He was replaced by Cleveland native Eric Emery. In the summer of 2015, it was announced that Skyharbor would be making their North American debut on TesseracT's 'Polaris' tour, alongside
The Contortionist
The Contortionist is an American progressive metal band from Indianapolis, Indiana. Formed in 2007, the band consists of guitarists Robby Baca and Cameron Maynard, drummer Joey Baca, vocalist Mike Lessard, bassist Jordan Eberhardt, and keyboard ...
and
ERRA Erra can refer to:
* Erra (god), a Babylonian god
* Erra, Estonia, a settlement in Sonda Parish, Ida-Viru County, Estonia
* Erra, the purported home planet of the pleiadean aliens described by ufologist Billy Meier
* Pizzo Erra, a mountain in Switz ...
.
The band premiered 'Out Of Time', the lead single off the as-yet untitled third album, on 27 August 2015. This was followed by the release of the video single 'Blind Side', featuring live performance and travel footage from their North America tour with TesseracT and The Contortionist. A video for a third single, 'Chemical Hands', was released on 23 September 2016. Skyharbor followed this up with extensive touring, with headline runs across Europe and India in October and November 2016, and a breakout European support tour with
Deftones
Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by Chino Moreno (vocals, guitar), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Abe Cunningham (drums), and Dominic Garcia (bass). During their first f ...
in April 2017.
In an interview in early 2017, Dhar announced that the band's third album titled ''
Sunshine Dust'' would be released in the late summer. However, on 19 November, the band confirmed that they were unhappy with the first sessions and would be re-recording the entire album, with an expected release date in 2018. On 18 January 2018, Skyharbor signed a worldwide deal with
eOne Music & Good Fight Music. ''
Sunshine Dust'' was released on 7 September 2018.
The band followed up the release with extensive touring in support of Tremonti, 10 Years, and RED.
Musical style
Skyharbor plays a style of
progressive metal
Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified guitar-driven sound of the former with the more experimental, cerebral ...
drawing elements of the orchestration of
Oceansize
Oceansize were an English rock band from Manchester, formed in 1998. The band consisted of Mike Vennart (vocals, guitar), Steve Durose (guitar, backing vocals), Richard "Gambler" Ingram (guitar, keyboards), Mark Heron (drums) and Jon Ellis (bas ...
and
Karnivool
Karnivool is an Australian progressive rock band formed in Perth in 1997. The group currently consists of Ian Kenny on vocals, Drew Goddard and Mark Hosking on guitar, Jon Stockman on bass, and Steve Judd on drums. Karnivool emerged from a band ...
and the
dream pop
Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...
influenced alternative metal of the
Deftones
Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by Chino Moreno (vocals, guitar), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Abe Cunningham (drums), and Dominic Garcia (bass). During their first f ...
. There is considerable emphasis given to heavily layered ambient guitars and vocal harmonies. On the first two LPs, Daniel Tompkins rarely employed any harsh vocals, instead focusing on layered harmonies and occasional pitched screams. On Sunshine Dust, Eric Emery employed largely lead-focused clean singing but was more generous in his use of harsh vocals, as evident on the lead single 'Dissent'.
Members
Current members
* Keshav Dhar – guitar (2010–present)
* Devesh Dayal – guitar (2012–present)
* Krishna Jhaveri – bass (2013–present)
* Eric Emery – vocals (2015–present)
Former members
* Nikhil Rufus Raj – bass (2011–2013)
* Daniel Tompkins – vocals (
Tesseract
In geometry, a tesseract is the four-dimensional analogue of the cube; the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of six square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of e ...
,
White Moth Black Butterfly, Zeta) (2010-2015)
* Anup Sastry – drums (2011–2015)
* Aditya Ashok - drums (2015–2019)
Session members
* Sunneith Revankar – vocals (performed on disc 2 of ''
Blinding White Noise: Illusion and Chaos'')
Touring members
* Anup Sastry - drums (2019)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
* ''
Blinding White Noise: Illusion and Chaos'' (2012)
* ''
Guiding Lights'' (2014)
* ''
Sunshine Dust'' (2018)
Singles
* "Celestial" (2011)
* "Maeva" (2012)
* "Evolution" (2014)
* "Patience" (2014)
* "Out of Time" (2015)
* "Blind Side" (2016)
* "Chemical Hands" (2016)
* "Dim" (2018)
* "Dissent" (2018)
* "Sunshine Dust" (2018)
Videography
* "Evolution" (2014)
* "Patience" (2014)
* "Blind Side" (2016)
* "Chemical Hands" (2016)
* "Dim" (2018)
Tours and festivals
* Bacardi NH7 Weekender, India, 2011
* Alive Festival (main support to Lamb of God), India, 2012
* Euroblast Festival, Germany, 2012
* UK Tech Fest (main support to Veil of Maya), UK, 2013
* Altered State Release Tour (with Monuments and TesseracT), Russia, 2013
* Blinding White Noise Tour (headline), UK, 2013
* Download Festival, UK, 2014
* Dissonance Festival, Italy, 2014
* Evolution Tour (headline), Europe, 2014
* Graspop Metal Meeting, Belgium, 2014
* Bacardi NH7 Weekender, India, 2014
* Guiding Lights Launch Tour (headline), India, 2014
* 'The Feel Trip' European Co-Headline Tour (with sleepmakeswaves and Tides From Nebula), 2015
* Polaris Tour, USA and Canada (with ERRA, The Contortionist and TesseracT), 2015
* Europe & UK tour (headline with Sithu Aye and Modern Day Babylon), 2016
* Gore Europe Tour (with Deftones), 2017
* Clairvoyant North America (support for The Contortionist and Silent Planet with Strawberry Girls), 2018
* Progfest Australia (with The Ocean and Monuments) 2019
See also
*
Indian rock
Indian rock is a music genre in India that may incorporate elements of Indian music with rock music, and is often topically India-centric. While India is more often known for its (northern and southern) classical music, filmi, Bollywood ...
*
Kryptos (band)
Kryptos is an Indian heavy metal band from Bangalore, India, formed in 1998 by Nolan Lewis (vocals/guitars) and Ganesh K. ( bassist). They are one of the pioneers of the modern Indian heavy metal movement. Since their inception the band has re ...
*
Bhayanak Maut
*
Nicotine (band)
Nicotine is a heavy metal band from Indore, India, formed in December 2006. Its line-up consists of Digvijay Bhonsale on lead vocals/rhythm guitar, Aniruddha Gokhale (Founding member) on lead guitar/backing vocals, Anuj Malkapurkar on bass guita ...
*
Inner Sanctum (band)
*
Scribe (band)
*
Demonic Resurrection
References
{{Authority control
Indian progressive rock groups
Ambient music groups
Indian heavy metal musical groups
Progressive metal musical groups
Musical groups established in 2010