ALBUM REVIEW: Skylighting – Avandra

A global pandemic forcing everyone to stay mostly indoors has meant a great deal of soul-searching about what it means to be us, tackling grand questions of our place in the world and how we can build a better world. These kinds of vast, introspective questions deserve a fitting soundtrack and who better than Puerto Rican prog metallers AVANDRA?

Since starting as founder Christian Ayala Cruz’s one man project back in 2011 and expanding into a full band around 2017, AVANDRA have released two albums of introspective, grandiose prog tackling the big questions with equally large soundscapes. Second album Descender only came out in 2019 but with lockdowns around the world, the band found themselves with plenty of time on their hands and a plentiful vein of creativity was found and mined. Initially writing Celestial Wreath as a one-off response to the pandemic, the band had a full seven songs written in short order and compiled them into their third album, Skylighting and their first for Layered Reality Productions. 

The aforementioned opener Celestial Wreath is bright and breezy with immersive synths and a sense of vibrancy. The soaring, ethereal vocal lines are entwined with introspective guitar licks and brim with self-confidence. Of particular note is the opening to third track Life Is Not A Circle, But A Sphere; the yearning guitar melody gives way to Christian’s layered vocals with lush harmonies. It’s a gorgeous moment of peace and stillness that the band build on further, using the vocal harmonies to great effect throughout. The scope opens up from this personal intro to the cosmic in its sound and the song flows like liquid honey.

Eternal Return sees the guitar and synths initially take a backseat as the bass picks up the melody with a motif that underpins the song and repeats throughout. The synths build on this without overpowering as the vocals once more soar above though the song does sag around the middle with some drawn out repeated sections. Penultimate song Afferent Realms is perhaps the most ‘metal’ song in its opening harmonics and chugging polyrhythms that are more reminiscent of djent than space-age prog. These flourishes are few and far between though; the opening melody is repeated later on the synths and serves to expand the sonic palette of the song, rather than being the sole focus. Closer New Origins features an almost robotic spoken word passage over lush strings, sounding almost like it was taken straight from a sci-fi epic. It remains almost entirely metal-free until just shy of its three minute mark though this is short-lived and the album closes once as it began, with stirring synths. 

The very real danger with progressive metal is a tendency towards self-indulgence. There are far too many bands that treat the genre as a form of musical one-upmanship, overcomplicating everything until songs are just opaque, overlong and far too technical. AVANDRA are the polar opposite of this. Though their music contains a clear progressive core such as in the song-writing and use of texture, they seem to be fervent believers in the less-is-more approach. While there are technical moments, songs don’t noodle around unnecessarily and there’s never too much going on at a time. Instead, they use texture, repetition and melody to create soundscapes that are both cosmic in scope and deeply introspective, the ideal soundtrack to tackle big questions and do some serious self-reflection. In keeping with prog tradition, songs are sometimes lengthy (Eternal Return in particular clocks in at around ten minutes) but thanks to their approach to crafting smooth, accessible songs they don’t truly feel their length. 

Skylighting is, simply put, a triumph of grandiose and introspective progressive music, a smooth and easily digestible listen. AVANDRA neatly side-step the more usual pitfalls of the genre to deliver an emotional, engaging record that delivers on the promises of its predecessors and more. 

Rating: 8/10

Skylighting is out now via Layered Reality Productions. 

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