ABOUT SIKTH:
Few British metal bands have exerted an influence as profound as
SIKTH. Formed at the turn of the millennium, the six-piece helped redraw the boundaries of progressive and technical metal through rhythmic complexity, virtuoso musicianship, contrasting dual vocals and an approach to songwriting that rejected conventional structures.
SIKTH’s defining line-up was established in 2001: vocalists
Mikee W. Goodman and
Justin Hill, guitarists
Dan Weller and
Graham “Pin” Pinney, bassist
James Leach and drummer
Dan “Loord” Foord.
Goodman’s screams, spoken narratives and theatrical character voices contrasted with
Hill’s melodic and aggressive singing, while the instrumentalists approached complex arrangements with remarkable precision.
Long before “djent” became an internationally recognised movement, SIKTH were exploring many of its defining ideas: tightly controlled syncopation, shifting metres, interlocking guitar patterns, elastic bass lines and sudden transitions between extreme heaviness, melody, ambience and spoken word. While Meshuggah provided an important earlier foundation, SIKTH translated those possibilities into an eccentric, distinctly British form encompassing mathcore, hardcore, progressive rock, jazz, punk and the avant-garde.
Their influence can be heard throughout the generation that followed, including Periphery, TesseracT, Animals as Leaders, Protest The Hero and Textures. Periphery bassist and producer Adam “Nolly” Getgood has described Death of a Dead Day as a game-changing connection between himself, Misha Mansoor and Periphery. He has particularly cited James Leach’s inventive use of tapping, slap bass and melodic counterpoint as a major influence.
Twenty years after its release, Death of a Dead Day remains embedded in the language of contemporary heavy music. SIKTH’s catalogue may be compact, but its reach is vast. Through originality, technical brilliance and a refusal to observe genre boundaries, they have earned their position as virtuosos, innovators and architects of modern progressive metal.
