siLLy puPPy STYGIAN SKY is a particularly interesting metal band in that it’s the closest thing i’ve heard to another band sounding like Vektor. This band formed in 2006 in Sydney, Nova Scotia in Canada’s far east and released this one demo that was somewhere along the line turned into a bonafide EP since the band, while technically still active has not released anything after save the one single “Dreaming The State Of Reality” in 2018.

This self-titled release formerly known as DEMO 2008 features a mere four tracks that just miss the 20 minute mark but the band displays a firm command of highly technical and complex metal compositions. The itself describes its sounds as a brutal combination of death, thrash and progressive metal styles and that’s exactly what you get here. The lineup is Jason Burke (guitar), Colin Capstick (guitar), Dave Grant (bass), Craig Joyce (drums) and Cliff Gouthro (vocals).

The four tracks on board exhibit a highly developed progressive thrash form much like the much more popular Vektor and Gouthro’s vocals also imitates David DiSanto’s raspy deathened style. Likewise the compositions exhibit that same dynamic delivery of changing riffs at a rapid fire pace with sudden breakdowns and deviations from the normal pattern fo things. The main complaint from this demo is that the excellent drumming style of Craig Joyce is set too high in an otherwise stellar production job and there is some truth to that as the percussion often (but not always) dominates and distracts.

For a so-called demo, this one showed some serious promise but it’s obvious that STYGIAN SKY was totally smitten with Vektor and needed to find their own voice in the wilderness but it seems these guys weren’t in it for the long haul and found other things to entertain themselves with however if they have been secretly working on an album’s worth of material after all these years then i’d be extremely interested in hearing what they conjured up in their whereabouts. This music is really excellent to experience but unfortunately it sounds like some long lost Vektor demos with some production issues to work out.