Skyharbor Announce Second Album ‘Guiding Lights’

Skyharbor

It wasn’t enough that prog metallers Skyharbor had news for their Indian fans ”“ that they would play at the Pune and Delhi NCR leg of Bacardi NH7 Weekender, making their first trip to the country after playing across Europe not once, but at least thrice in the span of two years. The multi-national band, comprising guitarists Keshav Dhar, Devesh Dayal, bassist Krishna Jhaveri, American drummer Anup Sastry and vocalist Dan Tompkins, also sprung news about their second full-length ten-track album, Guiding Lights, slated to release on November 10^th on UK metal label, Basick Records.

Looking back at the year, Skyharbor have been meticulously planning the release of the follow-up to their 2012 album Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos ”“ starting a funding campaign on crowdsourcing platform PledgeMusic in May, releasing their first single “Evolution” in June and now, a multi-city tour of India, where they will debut new material from Guiding Lights. Says Dhar, “It was right to play it live in India first, because we haven’t played here in so long.” Dhar says that with help from artist management agency Mixtape, the band has secured shows in Pune, Guwahati, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR.

The band’s setlist for the show will be similar to what they have played across Europe earlier in the year, performing mostly new material such as “Evolution,” the title track “Guiding Lights” and “Halogen” along with a couple of songs from Blinding White Noise. Says Dhar, “On the Europe tour, we played five new songs, but for the India tour, we’re probably playing six or seven out of 10 tracks.” The guitarist adds that they are also working on playing more shows in India in November. However, just like their last run of shows in India in 2012, the band may not return to play in India again for a while after touring the country this year. Says Dhar, “With this tour, we just wanted to make sure that people are going to flock to venues and really fill them up, because we don’t know when we’ll be back again.” While plans are already being made to return to Europe in Spring, Skyharbor are also working around band members’ schedules: Anup Sastry also plays drums with prog metal band Intervals and vocalist Tompkins announced in June that he had rejoined his former band, prog metallers TesseracT.

With the India shows now in place, Skyharbor will next launch their upcoming music video for “Patience,” which Dhar calls the ballad on the album. The guitarist adds, “We’re aiming to have it out at least a month before the album releases.”

‘Guiding Lights’ album artwork

Guiding Lights tracklist

1. Allure
2. Evolution
3. Idle Minds
4. Miracle
5. Halogen
6. New Devil
7. Patience
8. Guiding Lights
9. Kaikoma
10. The Constant