Six By Six consist of guitarist Ian Chrichton (Saga), drummer Nigel Glocker (Saxon) and multi-instrumentalist Robert Berry taking care of bass, keys and vocals.
Their self-titled debut album was a top notch slab of fresh and powerful prog rock/metal. Now they return with their second album titled Beyond Shadowland.
Ian Chrichton’s guitar is spellbinding. Flicking out the big crunchy power chords at will with bursts of mazy solos and other sound textures he conjurors up. Not huge lengthy solos – instead shorter, punchier breaks which fit the songs yet allow him to show is full range of textures he gets from his six strings. Remarkable stuff.
Robert Berry’s soaring and sensistive vocals, precise, bouncy, melodic and sometimes funky bass does not miss. His keyboard work ebbs and flows bringing the proggy and symphonic parts too.
The always reliable Nigel Glocker is such a fine drummer. Solid and powerful providing the base for Chrichton and Berry to work round.
The three of them do seem to compliment each other so well and have the chemistry to come up with this second album which is easily as good as the debut.
The first three songs all powerful and hard hitting yet with well worked melodic elements. Chichton’s guitar is the star and he’s all over it. Quite sublime. Perhaps The Arms of a Word is marginally the best of the three with the big crunchy riffing and jaunty bass lines going back and forth.
Obiliex and Only You Can Decide give the listener a bit of a breather both being generally acoustically grounded with washes of keys giving a sort of genteel proggy feel.
Titans an enjoyable quirky romp which thumps along with more guitar heroics towards the end. As there is in Outside Looking In which is more progressive in style with a nice melodic hook.
Sympathise comes in as a thumping rocker with pace and funky bass flourishes here and there. Probably the heaviest song on the album.
One Step is where Six By Six throw in everything. The epic track. A sweeping eight minutes or so of twists and turns and changes of pace and style all happening seamlessly. An engrossing listen. Check it out:
The Mission closes out a superb album as a bouncy upbeat feast with an infectious hook, proggy synth runs and another masterclass from Chrichton. A bit like 1970s Styx but heavier.
Beyond Shadowland builds on the excellence of Six By Six’s debut album providing an hour or so of compelling, interesting and varied music which is so well crafted and has it all – heavy, powerful, progressive, bombastic, melodic and sensitive – sometimes all together in one song such is the standard of song writing and composition.
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