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Scale the Summit is, from left, Travis Levrier, Jordan Eberhardt, Chris Letchford and Pat Skeffington. Steven Gilmore
Adventure metal.
Chris Letchford -- guitar
Jordan Eberhardt -- bass
Pat Skeffington -- drums
Travis LeVrier -- guitar
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Bloom
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Age Of The Tide
Demo, 2006
Monument, 2007
Carving Desert Canyons, 2009
Rock usually grows slowly under great pressure over thousands of years. But in the case of progressive instrumental metal band Scale the Summit, rock formed under blue skies over just a period of months.
"Our plan was to go to Los Angeles, learn to build custom instruments and do that for a living, " guitarist Chris Letchford says of his and fellow guitarist Travis Levrier's time spent at L.A.'s Musicians Institute.
"It came as a quick shock that everyone thought we should be playing."
Once Letchford and Levrier realized that shredding, not building, was their calling, they were single-minded in their pursuit of rock dominance. They found a bass player and drummer at school; convinced those players to move to Houston - where blue skies are not a given, but the living is easy; self-released their first album, Monument, with the intent to shop it to labels; signed with metal label Prosthetic Records in November 2007; and are now releasing their second album, Carving Desert Canyons, with plans to tour the U.S.
"We've accomplished a lot since being back home. We wouldn't have been able to accomplish half that in L.A., " Levrier says.
The two guitarists - who have known each other since elementary school in northwest Houston - moved back to town two years ago along with bassist Jordan Eberhardt and drummer Pat Skeffington because it's easier to pursue a dream when you're not scrabbling to pay $1,250 a month in rent on a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles.
"In L.A., we would have to be teaching 40 hours a week to make rent, " Letchford says. "Houston is a home base, somewhere to live rent-free. We're able to save money so that we can go on tour. In a couple of years we'll be stable enough where we can move out of our parents' houses, but we'll probably stay here, as much as I want to go back to L.A."
To be fair, Scale the Summit's technically adept, fleet-fingered metal is a square peg in a place as grungy and naturally punk as Houston. This is deep blue, clear-as-the-Pacific metal inspired by virtuosic guitar heroes like Dream Theater's John Petrucci, Gypsy jazz guitarist Biréli Lagrène, Paul Gilbert and Joe Satriani. It's a rare thing in Houston. Rarer still is a band that recognizes that sometimes music doesn't need words.
"Screaming wouldn't work; the music is too happy, " Levrier says. "Singing would just take away from the music."
The band hasn't played in Houston since April 2008 to concentrate on writing the new album, so its upcoming CD-release show at Warehouse Live promises to be a full-house affair. The band will also tour with L.A.'s Intronaut this spring. With blogs and national press already swarming around Canyons - Guitar World did a full-page feature - Scale the Summit might be the next big thing to come out of Houston. Given the work that the band puts into this endeavor, it wouldn't be a fluke.
"We work at it every single day, " Letchford says.
-- Sara Cress | February 2009
Lina Fuh