US proggers Thematic to release new concept album in 2020

American prog quartet Thematic release Skyrunner on January 31, 2020. It’s been mixed and mastered by award-winning producer, Forrester Savell (Karnivool, Animals as Leaders, Twelve Foot Ninja, I Am Giant).

Skyrunner is a concept album that tells of a hero’s quest to honour a promise. It’s a tale of an epic journey through the fall from grace, the battle for redemption and the ultimate glory and tragedy of salvation.

The band say: “We have spent the last two years working on this concept album and we can't tell you how excited we are to finally release Skyrunner... It was a great pleasure to work with Forrester Savell on the production of the album as his ear for mixing was the right fit for our sound which blends progressive rock and Metal influences. The album is an epic telling of a hero's journey with narrative concepts and perspectives from the characters within the story. Skyrunner is a new chapter for Thematic and we look forward to taking this epic story out live to audiences in 2020!”

Thematic are: Kevin Samuel, Nate Buesching, Ryan Schmidt and Adam Cesarz

Tracklist:

1. Incarnate

2. Skyrunner

3. The Open Arms of Grace

4. Dirt and Chains

5. The Last Boundary

6. Silence in Thought

7. Abyss

8. Malice

9. Carry The Fire

10. Solitude

11. Universe Bloom

12. With Empty Hands

13. Falling Star

14. This Golden Day

Check out a preview of Skyrunner on the band’s Facebook page.

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.