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SKYLINE
Great was the expectation to see this Majorca-based band live in Madrid after they dropped last minute off the Nemelrock festival back on April. I was pleasently surprised by their 3 track demo late last year and thus, was willing to check out live what they had to offer. Skyline is formed by a mix of two different bands, and has the "top of the cream" hard rock musicians from the Balearics. Pedro González (keyboards), Tolo Grimalt (guitarist) and José Sanchez (bassist) were formerly on Fool's Kin, a really good hard rock act from Majorca. On the other hand, Ramón Grifé (vocalist) and the above mentioned Pedro González were on a side project called Far From Eden, (see Archives for the review of their demo), which was a more melodic band. Those are the origins of Skyline. On their previous demo, Skyline presented themselves as a hard rock band with a certain southern flavour. But what they showed live the other day was much mor than that. They are top notch musicians. The rhythm section sounded really solid, not to mention the astonishing guitar/bass duets ala MR. Big, really worth seeing (and listening to). Particularly I would mention the bassist which impressed me with his outstanding technique and his ways to cheer up the audience. But pointing out just one of them wouldn't be fair enough cause, as I said, they are all great musicians. Ramón is possibly the best hard rock vocalist I've ever seen in Spain, Tolo showed a remarkable masterdom on guitar, I've already talked about José (the bass player), the drummer (can't recall his name now, sorry) delivered a terrific show, building the band's sound from the base (as it has to be, with such a drummer you have to be really bad not to sound good), and Pedro was as always spectacular on keys. The band brought as additional musicians two boys and a girl [who caused our Chief Editor to fall in love :)] on backup vocals and they did a good job, but a bit blurred on the first part of the show due to sound problems which affected also the keyboards. The band gained momentum playing their new songs along with two tracks from their previous demo: "Full Of Empty" (mp3 included on our Vigilante section) and "Closed Mind". And I must say that the new songs really kick serious ass, in a much more hard/melodic mood than the previous ones. They also played some covers: Steve Winwood's "Gimme Your Loving", also covered a while ago by Thunder, Van Halen's "Jump", when both Pedro and Tolo rocked the house down, and a Led Zeppelin medley with "Whole Lotta Love/Starway To Heaven" that should have remove any doubts on the band's abilities live. Summing it up, the band has a very compact sound without weak spots, a first division line up which has strength, elegance, feeling and future. They can become a big hit on the months to come, if they reach the eagerly desired album deal, so A&R's: be alert, this band has got everything to be big on the melodic rock scene worldwide. I just think they're the best Spanish melodic rock band I've ever seen live (and I've seen quite a few since the 80's). Good luck boys, you really deserve it! Jorge Antonaya,
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