A Dying Planet - melodic prog refinement, skill and songwriting

A Dying Planet

Where the Skies Are Grey

Lifeforce Records

September 17th, 2021

(January 21st, 2022 - Vinyl LP)

A Dying Planet is led by Jasun Tipton, a U.S. prog guitarist that genre fans may already be familiar with due to his work with long-running band Zero Hour (Sensory Records) that has several albums that critics and fans consider durable works of melodic progressive heavy metal with traditional singing. Jasun has often worked with his brother, the bassist Troy Tipton. Additional acts associated with the Tipton brothers are Cynthesis and Abnormal Thought Patterns, amongst others. However, it looks like Troy is not involved with A Dying Planet (the internet seems to say long-term health problems). Jasun has enlisted Paul Adrian Villarreal (ex-Sun Caged) as the singer.

A Dying Planet features good, melodic singing and prog instrumentation, still generally within traditional progressive heavy metal (like found on a band like Fates Warning), although this new album, their second, has some heavier guitar sounds, with some heavier tuning and some heavy prog grooves integrated, suggesting a bit of a more contemporary sound. There is an air of maturity and experience; a lack of pandering to gimmicks (I don’t hear cursing; avoiding clichés; no braggadocio); a style that features lots of vocal melodies that people can sing along; lyrics that read like poetry on topics of desperation, loneliness, parents’ loving reactions to the newborn child, and other such topics, as well as some vague lyrics open to interpretation. The music has the sing-ing and vocal lines at the center for the audience to connect. The music itself is melodic, not particularly complex nor crazy nor experimental but rather intellectual-sounding and mellow at times, and at other times the metal is very present, still with a certain intellect. The singing really helps to understand the music and it is likely to make the thoughtful listener go back and discover more details with repeated listens to this refined recording. Such class.

A DYING PLANET - When the Skies Are Grey (official video)

https://www.facebook.com/adyingplanet