Canadian multi-instrumentalist Robb Finlayson, who recently released his new solo album The Beauty Of Rage, has issued an update on his Skye Asylum project.

"As some of you know, while writing my last album, The Beauty Of Rage, I started to also write movie trailer type music and add my own twist to it. This is when I created Skye Asylum. It’s still just me doing all the composing and instrumentation, but with a ton of cross-genre influence. In order to pull all of this off I needed to find the perfect vocalist that can sing opera, classical, theatrical, rock, pop, ambient, etc. I was so fortunate to hear the music of Alexa Ray. Thinking it was a long shot, I emailed her to see if she would be interested and to my surprise she was... with that said I am so honoured to have a vocal talent such as herself to sing the stories of The Under Dark, which is the album's official name."

Check out a clip of Finlayson's work with Alexa Ray, also featuring Imonolith / Devin Townsend Project drummer Ryan Van Poederooyen, released on March 1st.

Finlayson recently checked in with the following:

"The Beauty of Rage is now available everywhere on all streaming platforms. A whole year of writing and recording boils down to these 10 songs. Crank it up and enjoy! The title track The Beauty Of Rage is below."

Special thanks to:

Ryan Van Poederooyen - Drums
Jon Howard - Vocals
Jess Ruin - Vocals
Brett Reid - Producer
Young Bros. Productions - Co-Producers
Jason Van Poederooyen - Mix and Master Engineer

Finlayson recently spoke with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai about the follow-up to his Winter's Apprentice album, 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-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."