Back in 2017, when they released their debut album Fragments, Artefacts & Ruins, WaterColour Matchbox was little more than a two piece studio project for Peter Mitchell and Mikey Ferbrache just beginning to look into expanding to live performances.

Now, as they release their second full length record, Pathways, with a special live show at St James, they have established themselves as one of the tightest live acts at the heavier end of Guernsey and the Channel Islands’ music scene, completed by Scott Michel on bass and Luke Corbin on drums.

Pathways instantly gets going in powerful fashion with lead single The Reckoning that shows where the record is going to continue as it takes the template they laid down on their first, somewhat fragmented, release and cements a sound for the band they were somewhat lacking previously.

This mixes modern metal with progressive rock to create a prog metal hybrid that draws on influences from many places but is all their own. Across Pathways this takes the band in several different directions but, unlike on the previous record, it is more firmly anchored in a distinctive sound.

Second track Heading South adds a bouncing groove while elsewhere we get lighter moments with more intricate guitar work and vocals, and in other places it heads into far heavier directions reminiscent of Slipknot’s more developed output.

With this they have lost something of the hints of progressive grunge that were present on their debut but, in all, it presents a far more unified feel to the album as a whole.

You can also hear the different elements the now complete band’s individual members bring to the table, from the clarity of Mitchell’s vocals to Ferbrache’s intricate guitar work to the more focussed heavy metal drive provided by Michel and Corbin as a dedicated rhythm section, on top of which the extra vocals Michel brings to the table enforce this even further.

Interestingly the record captures something of the band far more than their live shows seem to manage with the studio work and production allowing them to more completely express their musical vision.

Usually I prefer bands in a live context but in this case the depth and precision that the studio lets them find makes this a far more engaging representation of their sound than they can usually manage on stage.

Simply this is because of the relative complexity of their music with multi layered instruments and, often, more instrumentation than four people on stage can play — particularly given the usually relatively simple set up allowed in a small live gig setting.

Having the lead guitarist and frontman being the producers and studio runners (at Apocalypse Studios) clearly, in this case, helps them confirm, their vision on ‘tape’ too.

As it goes on the album continues to impress with an epic sweep that avoids being histrionic and, at its best points, it’s genuinely absorbing and transporting in a way that confirms it could never be background music and rewards harder listening, along with which I love the combination of harmonic vocals and screaming that occurs several times across the album.

One moment that doesn’t quite work comes on When Will You Be Saved when two sets of screamed vocals play off each other and, while I can see what they were aiming for the screams are maybe not quite strong enough to quite deliver it fully, but really thats the only quibble.

As the album ends though, on Where Do We Go, it leaves things on a note of hanging feedback that very much suggests this is only the beginning and, while Pathways is certainly a complete piece, the band have even more to offer.

In all Pathways is a huge, slick and accomplished record that may well be the most professionally complete sounding recording I’ve heard from a band in Guernsey but, above all of this, it confirms for WaterColour Matchbox a sound and style they had previously been searching for and only hinted at in their live performances.