Skryptor (Dazzling Killmen, craw, Aa, etc) releasing debut LP (stream it)

Skryptor is a new-ish NYC-based trio featuring guitarist/keyboardist Tim Garrigan of Dazzling Killmen, guitarist/keyboardist David McClelland of craw, and drummer Hank Shteamer of STATS and Aa (who is also a music writer and has contributed to Invisible Oranges), the latter of whom considers it a dream come true to be playing with these guys. “There are definitely still times at band practice when I look around and kind of can’t believe I’m actually in the room with these two guys,” Shteamer says. “I was only just beginning to play drums around the time I first heard those bands, and the musicianship involved in [craw and Dazzling Killmen] just seemed superhuman. I only really came to appreciate classic rock and such later, so these bands were like my Zeppelin and Beatles.”

They’re releasing their debut album Luminous Volumes this Friday (3/29) via Skin Graft, Sleeping Giant Glossolalia, and Aqualamb, along with an illustrated, 200-page book of original horror stories by David McClelland and other authors (pre-order). The album was recorded and mixed by Colin Marston (of Dysrhythmia, Krallice, Gorguts, and Behold… The Arctopus), and it should appeal to fans of the members’ previous bands but it’s not just a repeat of any of those bands. Across its seven instrumental tracks — two of which pass the nine-minute mark — it touches on noise, math rock, post-hardcore, metal, prog, psych, the avant-garde, and more. It’s an album that often favors dissonance and atonality, but it can be very beautiful at times too. It’s like late-period Black Flag meets early King Crimson meets the trippier side of Black Sabbath, but even those comparisons don’t begin the describe the breadth of musical styles explored on this album. It’s a very cool record, and you can now listen to the full stream which makes its premiere below.