UMUR "The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild" is the debut full-length studio album by UK, Watford based progressive metal act Sikth. The album was released through Gut Records in August 2003. Sikth was active from 2001 to 2008 and released two full-length studio albums in that period.

The music on the album is a highly energetic form of progressive metal with elements of all sorts of other music styles. Most notably mathcore, NU-metal, alternative metal and hardcore. Imagine how a combination of The Dillinger Escape Plan, System of a Down, Mr. Bungle, Devin Townsend, Protest the Hero and Shaolin Death Squad would sound like and you´re half way there. At their most melodic (like on "Peep Show") I´d even pull out The Mars Volta as a reference.

Sikth features two vocalists. I´m not completely sure who sings what, but there are several different vocal styles featured in the music. It often sounds like a group of mad men shouting, screaming, fast talking, hysterical, whining and occasionally singing more clean melodic type vocals. There is a girlish quality to the clean vocal delivery that´ll probably be a little off putting to some, but you can´t deny that the vocals are delivered with fierce conviction and great skill. The point is the vocals are most likely an aquired taste. The instrumental part of the music is played with militant precision but features a delightfully chaotic sound. The technical level of playing is incredibly high. Both guitarists play very challenging riffs and themes, the bassist is thankfully placed high in the mix and he plays some really busy stuff throughout and the drummer is a tech metal monster. Contantly changing rhythms and time signatures and constantly shifts between energetic aggressive sections and more melodic atmospheric ones. This is at the same time very challenging and very catchy music.

"The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild" is a self-produced affair (mixed by Colin Richardson) and it´s obvious the band are very skilled at this. The album features a very well sounding and powerful sound production, which provides the right space for all instruments and vocals in the soundscape. Another great asset is the album´s flow or in other words how the tracklist is put together. It´s an album full of surprises. Not only are the material really eclectic in nature, we´re also treated to great changes in mood and atmosphere throughout the album.

The first part of the album (the first seven tracks) are wild, energetic and chaotic in nature, with the occasional more melodic section thrown in, but when the eigth track "Tupelo" kicks in, it´s also the beginning of around 18 minutes of experimental, atmospheric music that is completely different from what came before it, yet somehow Sikth manage to make the transition in a seamless natural fashion. After being bombarded with technical playing and a very high energy level during the first part of the album, it´s initially a bit of a culture shock to be met with the atmospheric sound of "Tupelo", "Can't We All Dream?" and the short piano interlude "Emerson, Part 2". It´s perfect though and while the craziness continues on those tracks too with odd theatrical poetry recital and other types of obscure vocal artistery, that part of the album does work as a little breather, because when "How May I Help You?" kick in we´re back in high energy chaotic territory again. That continues until the closing track "When Will the Forest Speak...?", which brings us back into odd poetry recital territory.

At 60:34 minutes (and that´s excluding the Japanese bonus tracks), "The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild" is a long album, but because of the eclectic nature of the music and the great flow of the album, it´s not a minute too long. This is a progressive metal album in the most true sense of the word and when that amounts to a greatly adventurous, well played and well produced end product, as the case is here, a 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

Conor Fynes 'The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild' - Sikth (7/10)

There is alot to be said about Sikth, a band from the UK that is now defunct. Although they fit into a particular sound of music that I have rarely been attracted to, I've been lately infatuated with their incredibly chaotic sound and adventurous musicianship. Although their second album would perfect their work, the verbosely titled debut brings a distinctive melange of styles to the table. 'The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild' is quite a mouthful, and way do well to describe the feeling the music gets across. Sporting some of the best musicianship modern progressive metal has seen in the new millennium, Sikth balance off their jackhammer instrumentation with incredibly quirky left-of-centre compsoitions, and creates an aggressive piece of math metal that often flirts with the avant- garde.

I will say first that Sikth's music is not for everyone. In fact, most people will find the incredibly dense and diverse style that they play to be virtually impenetrable.Sikth's first fit into a label will likely be 'mathcore', sharing the same out of control style and screamed vocals that The Dillinger Escape Plan and Protest The Hero use. This is a style that I have historically found inconsistent at best, and distasteful at worst, but I've been proven here that there is gold in every mound. Of the two albums that Sikth put out when they were still together, this is the more mathcore-based, and less melodic of the two pieces. However, the sense of sporadic shifts and diversity is here in full. 'The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild' introduces the band's style in all its glory. There is intensely technical musicianship that rivals many of prog metal's most inventive acts. The most challenging aspect of this band however, are their vocals. With two vocalists, it's granted that there will be some more diversity to the voices here than is usual for band, but the vocal element goes all across the board. From nutty shrieks and high-pitched screams to clean singing, growls and avant-garde spoken word poetry, it's as if Sikth hired the local asylum for the criminally insane's house choir, told them to patch together some lyrics, and deliver them in whatever way they see fit. It's strange, and the pieces do not always fit together, but it keeps things wildly interesting.

'The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild' is a very ambitious effort, but some ideas are taken far beyond where they should have stopped. 'Tupelo' and 'Can't We All Dream?' are a perfect example of this, taking an altogether sixteen minute respite from the chaos to build up a couple of odd vocal ideas. Although 'Tupelo' succeeds in conveying an eerie tribal feeling, the following track ends up becoming irritating long before the end. Hearing the track title shouted countless times after the music ends would have been a disappointing end to the album, but to make it worse, it's lodged in the middle of it. Through this, 'The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild' has a fairly weak sense of flow to it, and even feels like it should have ended much earlier than it does. 'Death Of A Dead Day' is superior in virtually every way, but as debuts go, SIkth gives a remarkable experience here. It's a shame that we will only ever hear two albums from them, because there is not a band that has a sound just like theirs.

arcane-beautiful This is up among the list of albums that changed my life forever. Picture this, a young 10 year old child, listening to quite average rock and alternative bands (mainly American, the Trout Mask Replica of nationallity concerning music). As I watch MTV2 (now called MTV Rock I think) at about 11 o'clock at night, a vibrant cartoon music video comes on, being only 10, it intrigued me a wee bit. The music that accompanied the video was some of the weirdest and most influential noises I have ever heard). The song was called How May I Help You?. I was intrigued.

Then a few months later, I hear another song and video from the band, one for the song Scent Of The Obscene. The video wasn't as attractive, but the song was so amazing and monumental, they had made a nice place for them in my heart.

I didnt buy the album until a while later, but yes, this album is a monument among metal.

Sikth were able to take math metal, which was quite a disjuncted genre, and form with it post metal, post hardcore, avant garde metal and progressive metal, making one of the most interesting and most successful fusions in what I see as music history.

The instrumental work is also incredibly smart and very frantic.

1. Scent Of The Obscene - When that slap bass line comes in, prepare for an amazine ride. Mixing amazing frantic sections with the almost ambient breakdown and topping off with a soaring chorus, this has to be one of the greatest songs ever made. The lyrics are amazing as well.

2. Pussyfoot - The intro of this song always makes me laugh. Great lyrics and the vocals are amazing. Incredbily frantic.

3. Hold My Finger - The lyrics of this song always makes me laugh. Thought they couldn't get anymore frantic, you were wrong.

4. Skies Of Millenium Night - Great lyrics and an hode to Bill Hicks. Very nice. The instrumental work in this song is amazing and the instrumental section just prooves how much of an amazing band these guys were.

5. Emerson, Pt. 1 - A beautifull piano instrumental. This is very sad and at times is a wee bit eerie.

6. Peepshow - One of the best songs on the album. Amazing lyrics, amazing voals from Justin and an beautifull soaring chorus. The vocal harmonies also are flawless. The video for this song is quite weird, but amazing.

7. Wait For Something Wild - Anoter incredibly frantic song with amazing voals. Crazy and werid as always. The ending is quite funny, showing Mikee's amazing voice work.

8. Tupelo - A Nick Cave cover. Yes, this isnt out of place. I haven't heard Nicks version, but if it's as good as this, then I will be happy. Mikee's vocals really are specatcular, with some amazing vocal techniques that he could only pull off. I love the eerie atmopshere that surrounds the song.

9. Can't We All Dream - Very noisy but quite beautifull in a morose sense.Some amazing vocals and I love the discourse between drums and bass.

10. Emerson, Pt. 2 - The continuation of this very beautiful piano interlude.

11. How May I Help You? - This is just...words can't describe it. If you haven't heard this song, then you badly need to. Very comical and incredibly enjoyable. Again, Mikee shows off some amazing vocal styles and voices. The story of the song is also very funny. The video can also be used as added stimulus.

12. (If You Weren't So) Perfect - Great song with a great chorus. Some amazing voals and lyrics.

13. Such The Fool - One crazy song. It's just so frantic.

14. When Will The Forest Speek...? - An amazing spoken word poem. Again, amazing voices from Mikee. I also can quote this word for word.

CONCLUSION: This changed my life, and hopefully it will change yours.