HOWLING SYCAMORE
Multi-dimensional extreme prog metal that traverses distance and time.
Prog metal diehards will be well aware of Jason McMaster. Blessed with an extraordinary multi-octave range and a gritty, soulful tone that could be both tender and terrifying, he is best known for the first Watchtower album, 1985’s Energetic Disassembly: a seminal benchmark for the entire prog metal genre. Now, in 2019, McMaster has just released his second album with extreme prog crew Howling Sycamore, a collaboration with ex-Ephel
Duath maverick Davide Tiso and death metal drumming legend Hannes Grossmann. Arguably even further out there than either Watchtower or Ephel Duath, Seven Pathways To Annihilation is a thrilling showcase for the chemistry between three revered virtuosos. Oddly, however, the trio have never actually been in the same room together.
“We have actually never met,” McMaster tells Prog. “That adds to the mystery of the group, no doubt. When it began, I got an email from Davide out of nowhere. If I remember correctly, he wrote asking if I would be interested in the project. He sent a few of the songs from the first record [2018’s Howling Sycamore] for me to listen to. I checked it out and was completely floored. So here we are, two records into what has become a strange relationship, creating strange music together. Davide supplies the music and lyrics, and I supply melodies… over insanity.”
“I saw Jason in action years before, when Watchtower and Ephel Duath were on the same festival bill in 2004,” Tiso adds. “He accepted to sing for the band after listening to some guitar and drums pre-production. I was ecstatic! I feel that Howling Sycamore took on a life of its own that day. His vocal range is simply stunning but what I love the most about his style is the melodic approach that he has. He purposely tries to unsettle the listener with parts that are not that immediate.”
Those familiar with Davide Tiso’s back catalogue will know that he deals heavily in dissonance, discord and often merciless darkness and aggression. But Howling Sycamore is a much more multi-dimensional and sonically spacious entity than previous projects, with McMaster’s voice a perpetually human but often horrified foreground presence. At times wildly psychedelic, Seven Pathways To Annihilation is what happens when demented musicality collides with ancient philosophy.
“On this second album my lyrics are again touching metaphysical topics, in particular shamanic and Buddhist principles,” Tiso explains. “This approach is at the very core of what Howling Sycamore is about conceptually. I like to take the listener to that place where I go and hide from the world during meditation. The album title and the whole theme is based on the shamanic principle of destroying my own ego in order to psychically advance. Each of the seven songs in the album are meant to be a pathway toward that.”
With no current plans to turn Howling Sycamore into a live band, Tiso, McMaster and Grossmann are obviously content to sustain the distant and mysterious nature of their artistic relationship. With all three fully engaged in various other projects, this unique meeting of minds may eschew the usual routes to glory, but there’s no mistaking the sound of mercurial masters at work. And no one is enjoying it more than the band themselves.
“I’m already working on the guitars and structures for the third Howling Sycamore record,” notes Tiso. “The material is dense, epic and prog but also showing some elegant restraint!”
“I’m just awaiting the next call to board the ship that takes us on the next journey,” McMaster says. “I feel the new record is consistent with the first. I don’t know why, but I felt that would be hard to do. I know I wanted to try new things on this one and I hope I achieved that. I just put myself into a trance and become a conduit for what Davide’s songs are trying to tell me. I hope our travels continue to surprise even ourselves.” dl
“THE ALBUM TITLE AND THE WHOLE THEME IS BASED ON THE SHAMANIC PRINCIPLE OF DESTROYING MY OWN EGO IN ORDER TO PSYCHICALLY ADVANCE.”