Lights in the Sky was founded in 2015 in Palm Desert, CA by Tim Valles (vocals/guitar). He teamed up with David Ayala (drums) and made Beyond the Dune Sea. He explains that “I set out to make it sound as if it were recorded in 1993. I want it to fit in with the grunge and hard rock albums of the ‘90s, but I know it has an original sound that's true to the desert the music was born in.” 1993 is an oddly specific year but I know what he is saying. In fact you wouldn't believe the amount of musicians I’ve worked with that wanted a ’90s hard rock/grunge sound. It makes sense. Rock was thriving back then. You don’t get many people asking for that 2008 rock vibe.
The album is heavy sounding with lots of fuzz and reverb. He starts off strong with “Burning Homestead” which captures a good amount of fuzz. I was getting some Soundgarden vibes here and a lesser known band - Comets on Fire. The lyrics were hard to make out because there was a lot of reverb but overall there was a very serious tone that contained mythical and fantasy based themes. The words were somewhere between Tool and Spinal Tap. I really loved the chorus which was catchy and memorable. The kind of very dramatic word play and delivery is present on a lot of the songs. There is usually some solid rocking that takes place. “The Chosen One” was one of my favorite jams which contains a good amount of energy. That being said I loved “Diamond.” This had more of a shoegaze production with nice fuzzy lower mids. His vocals here are way low in the mix and only peak out as reverb. It was a good sound overall and they should continue to make songs like this as I thought it fit their style. There was one really unexpected turn. It was the song “Edom Hill'' which was percussive heavy and sounded like a completely different band. It wasn’t only the style but the production. They close with “Home Away from Hollywood’ which is a fuzzy rocker. The band delivered a solid album. I definitely had my preferences but overall I was digging their sound. Take a listen.
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