Released: 2025
Genre: Post-metal, Post-rock
Sounds Like: Cult of Luna, ISIS, Codespeaker
Homeland: Scotland, UK
What makes Cleave elite and sit atop OHMs Peak?
Originating from Scotland, UK, Beneath A Steel Sky offers a captivating post-metal sound. Their music is both intense and soothing, combining post-metal with layers of post-rock.
The album's vocals enhance it with a combination of clean and sludge-like tones. This remarkable debut highlights their patience and depth, blending precise production with outstanding song structures.
Beneath A Steel Sky deliver in a big way. It’s abrasively beautiful as we like to say. If you love Post-metal or just want to explore a more expansive side of metal, this album is a must. For a debut album, they bring their own style into this genre, making this a must have for vinyl lovers.
Track Listing: 1. The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel 3:17 2. Vanguard 6:04 3. Everyone you've ever known 4:35 4. Quetzalcoatlus 6:245 5. The infinite silence that follows the absolute truth 7:16 7. Cyclical dunt 4:06 7. The becoming 7:57
Dive deeper into Cleave with our Q&A with Beneath A Steel Sky.
OHMs Peak: Would love for a brief glimpse into your process and time commitment in making the album.
Beneath A Steel Sky: Our debut album Cleave is an evolution of an earlier instrumental-only incarnation of the band that originated during the Covid19 lockdowns in the UK. The songs on Cleave started life as the next stage to this original project, with changes to the original lineup facilitating additional instrumentation (and a vocal approach). As such the framework recordings for the songs have existed now for some time, with the final structuring, polish and mastering happening towards the end of 2024.
We undertook the recording and mixing of all instrumentation ourselves (with the exception of the drums, which were studio recorded), and the completed album was sent to Brad Boatright of AudioSeige for mastering.
OHMs Peak: What was your band’s most memorable live performance? Where was it held and why was the night so special?
Beneath A Steel Sky:As a relatively new band we’ve only played a handful of gigs so far, including support slots with bands such as Shy, Low. Our most memorable performance however would have to be our album launch show at the end of January 2025. To see such a public appreciation for the music was a very uplifting experience.
OHMs Peak: You show tremendous patience throughout this album. With songs like 'The infinite silence that follows the absolute truth' and 'Quetzalcoatlus,' you sound like a band that has been around for a decade. What previous projects has each band member been in prior to Beneath A Steal Sky?
Beneath A Steel Sky: All members of Beneath a Steel Sky would (probably) describe themselves as seasoned, having all played (or currently playing) in one or more additional musical projects for a relatively long time. Currently the band features current or past members of (most noteably) Codespeaker, Iron Altar, Divide and Halo Tora.
OHMs Peak: The vocals on this album are stellar. The balance between sludge angst and the uplifting clean tones really elevates this album. Can you provide an insight into the how this came to be?
Beneath A Steel Sky: The vocal ethos for this band was always about creating textural additions to the music with different vocal colourings, rather than presenting the music as vocal-fronted. We aim to treat the vocal parts in the same way we approach guitar and synth melody. The range facilitated by the 3 singers in the band also allows for exploration of all aspects of vocal performance, from glassy harmony-rich clean vocals to claustrophobic doom. On Cleave, we’ve attempted to make use of this only when most appropriate for each song.
OHMs Peak: The album art is very intriguing, and has this post-metal/industrial feel. Is there any meaning behind this?
Beneath A Steel Sky: We’d intended for the artwork accompanying our music to further flesh out the feeling of the universe created through the themes expressed in the songs. It was intended through subject matter and colour choice to convey an environment that is both austere and dystopian, yet also strangely familiar. The visuals should (hopefully) form effective companion pieces for the music.
OHMs Peak: What band NOT in your genre would you love to tour with that would most compliment your sound?
Beneath A Steel Sky: We'd love to tour with someone like Massive Attack or Boards of Canada, we'd hope that some of our more ambient sections would work with their fans.
OHMs Peak: We would love any insight as to your current and upcoming tour plans?
Beneath A Steel Sky: We are currently planning some UK dates for later in 2025.
OHMs Peak: Your band is stranded on an island with only a solar powered turntable and majestic powered solar blue tooth speakers. The band collectively can only choose one album. Which album to you agree to?
Beneath A Steel Sky: So we couldn't come to an agreed answer to this question, and the fight over it would probably be the end of the band. We did manage to narrow it down to Mastadon's Crack the Sky, and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Potentially played at the same time to keep everyone happy.
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