Kyle Schutt

I have been a fan of Kyle Schutt since the first album by The Sword – a guitarist who is more capable than most of the doom metal brigade and a vocalist who actually sings lyrics rather than screaming improbable growls and threats.

So, my first thought on hearing that he had done a Doom metal version of Floyd’s classic Dark Side Of The Moon was to try and work out just what he might bring to it.
My first thought on hearing the recording was “meh – nothing new here”. But I persevered (and turned the volume up) and after a half dozen of so runs from ‘Speak To Me’ to ‘Eclipse’ I kind of get it.

In the main he hasn’t tried to make a new ‘thing’ of one of the most successful albums of all time – rather he has added some real power and darkness to the songs that could take them and done pretty good renditions of the rest.

The band assembled for the recording included his bandmates from The Sword Bryan Richie (bass) and Santiago Vela (drums) but he also brought in Alex Marrero on vocals, Joe Cornetti on keyboards and Jason Frey on saxes. The result is a band of like-minded musicians who manage to put over the innate power and depth of the original while taking some tracks into whole new areas.

Take their version of ‘Money’ – Floyd’s version was never short of rock power but add some massive riffs and take away Mason’s drumming subtlety and you get a monster track that you never want to end.
‘Breathe’ sounds very much like the original until you hear Schutt’s guitars distorting and harmonising, somehow bringing a new ‘edge’ to the song.

Schutt himself says that the project came about because he wanted to hear a heavy version of ‘Time’ and then spun into recording the whole album but the version of ‘Time’ is a great hook to hang it all on – the guitars screaming and massive drums really bringing a huge groove to the track.

I didn’t expect to enjoy this, but I did. It is flawed but there is enough great material here to make the project well worth investing some time to.