Canadian multi-instrumentalist Robb Finlayson, who recently released his debut solo album Winter's Apprentice, spoke with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai about the follow-up, which is currently in the works, and his Skye Asylum project.

Finlayson: "My second solo album, The Beauty Of Rage, is in the middle of being mixed right now and is a much heavier album than my first one, with Jon Howard (Threat Signal, Imonolith) doing the majority of the vocals. Ryan Van Poederooyen (Devin Townsend Project, Imonolith) plays drums on all the tracks. I went all out as I felt the material I wrote was strong and needed the best I could find to support the music. Plus, Ryan is good friend of mine. I don’t have a release date yet but I'm sure it'll be some time in March. I recorded The Beauty Of Rage at the famous Sunset Sound Studio in Hollywood in Studio 2, which was used by Led Zepplin, Slipknot, Van Halen and Rage Against the Machine.

I created Skye Asylum, which again is just me doing the songwriting and playing. I created a different name so I can explore the symphonic / cinematic  music with a metal edge; something along the lines of Nightwish and some of the gaming music from things like Skyrim, etc. It’s going to be heavy in spots, symphonic throughout, and follow a strict storyline. One song I have called 'Eberron' is almost 20 minutes long. I will start recording mid-next year as I have most of the material written and scored but needs arranging and lyrics added.

My 'solo' stuff will remain heavy metal and the Skye Asylum stuff will have elements of that but be more experimental and symphonic."

Check out snippets from The Beauty Of Rage and Skye Asylum below.