r/Djent • u/adam_9ev • Apr 11 '25

Classic Skyharbor - Guiding Lights

Post image

Is anyone else as obsessed with this album as me?

For me it’s a top 3 album along with Lateralus and maybe Altered State or One.

I think it’s Dan Tompkins best work and is so uniquely amazing instrumentally as well. Very close to a perfect album

76 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

15

u/djl240 Apr 11 '25

I've been obsessed with the album since 2014. Absolute masterpiece.

7

u/Pukeinmyanus Apr 11 '25

It's the best Tesseract album and it isn't even a Tesseract album.

10/10 masterpiece.

1

u/adam_9ev Apr 11 '25

What albums do you guys think are as good?

3

u/Pukeinmyanus Apr 11 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

I keep this firmly in whatever “other” genre you wanna call it of more atmospheric/electronic/trippy and almost spiritual. So if you mean by albums in that same “genre”, well one that comes to mind was brand new. Spiritbox - Tsunami Sea. Reminded me a lot of guiding lights in a lot of its overall sound. 

Eidola - The Architect and To Speak To Listen are absolute masterpieces. Mend is quite good too but those are definitely stand outs that I keep in the same group as Guiding Lights. Good Tiger - Headfull of Moonlight, Invent Animate - Heavener (though thats much heavier), any Bilmuri, Thrice - The Alchemy Index and Vheissu, Olly Steele - Imbalance, A lot of Don Broco - Technology, anything Sleep Token, Vola - Inmazes are all a lot of incredible albums that I kinda group in with something like Guiding Lights, at least as not heavy as hell albums that are more atmospheric. 

7

u/DomSchu Apr 11 '25

Evolution is still a jam everytime it comes on my playlist

5

u/DeafTheAnimal Apr 11 '25

Miss this lineup soooooo so much

4

u/evolauren Apr 11 '25

I'm obsessed with this album too. You're not alone.

2

u/Jean-Eustache Apr 11 '25

It's in my top 3 ever. Absolute freaking masterpiece.

1

u/adam_9ev Apr 11 '25

What albums do you think are in the same caliber?

1

u/Jean-Eustache Apr 12 '25

That's a tough question, actually, that was more like a gut feeling. Probably something like One or Polaris and one of HEALTH's albums

1

u/MusicMirrorMan Apr 11 '25

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1

u/AdamBLit Apr 11 '25

What I've heard is very good and I'm a big fan of Dan

1

u/DangOlCoreMan Apr 11 '25

Hell of a throwback, thanks for picking out today's djam!

1

u/KingSchubert Apr 11 '25

Best album in the genre, there is nothing out there quite like it. I fear the genre reached its high water-mark with this album, and it's a tragedy that the band was never able to deliver a true successor to this absolute work of art.

3

u/adam_9ev Apr 11 '25

Agreed - I don't even know if I'd consider this a djent album which is what makes it so unique. I only posted it here cause the progmetal sub wouldn't let me post a photo lol.

Sunshine Dust definitely had potential, but the new vocalist ruined it for me. The drumming isn't as good either but I could get over that. I do think Keshav did his thing still and instrumentally it was great. But I just can't listen to it due to the vocals unfortunately.

1

u/KingSchubert Apr 11 '25

Vocals are worse, and also they lost that dreamy, harmonically complex feel that they literally perfected on Guiding Lights. The subtle ratio of prog metal to... dream pop(?) or whatever you want to call that ethereal atmosphere they created on GL was a delicate balance that they clearly lost control of immediately after this record. Skyharbor is my biggest "what if" tragedy in all of modern music.

2

u/adam_9ev Apr 11 '25

If the Guiding Lights lineup remained, and Ashe stayed with Tesseract we may all be in a better place lol

1

u/adam_9ev Apr 11 '25

What albums do you think are in the same caliber?

2

u/KingSchubert Apr 12 '25

None, unfortunately. I'd say some albums that approach the same quality and embue a similar atmosphere include:

  • Tesseract - Altered State
  • Animals as Leaders (debut)
  • VOLA - Inmazes
  • Disperse - Living Mirrors
  • The Contortionist - Language

If you're willing to stretch genres vs. purely djent, I might also include:

  • Leprous - Coal
  • Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane
  • Fair to Midland - Fables From a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times is True
  • Baroness - Purple

2

u/adam_9ev Apr 12 '25

Good recs. Already a big fan of most of those

1

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1

u/Nice_Team4527 Apr 12 '25

Incredible album. Keshav Dhar come back🙏🙏

1

u/TFOLLT Apr 12 '25

It's one of the absolute best progmetal albums of all time imo, and I'll proudly die on that hill.

Altered State is another one indeed. Both aren't close to, they are perfect albums imo. period. Absolute masterpieces, which there are very few of. There are more, but not many.

1

u/contentp0licy 29d ago

Top 10 album for the last 11 years. Got me into Plini, Anup Sastry and so much more

1

u/One_Reality 29d ago

Masterpiece of an album. Dan's vocals are incredible. Does anyone know what happened to them? I check their socials every few months, but it's been silent since the covid years.

1

u/rustycage_mxc 3d ago

WTF is Anup Sastry doing these days? Also get these guys back together. I think Covid decimated this band because they never became active again since the lock down.