The Collective (Scale the Summit album)

On October 4, 2010, Scale the Summit begun recording the new album.[9] On October 25, the band have wrapped up tracking their new album and awaiting mixes for the effort with plans for a release early next year.[10] On January 19, 2011, they officially announced the album itself and release date.[11] On January 25, the band have begun a new webisode series looking at the making of the album, whilst also revealing the album cover and the track list.[12] On February 9, they have made the second studio webisode for the album available for viewing over at Guitar World.[13]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Blabbermouth.net	8/10[14]
KillYourStereo	[15]
Lambgoat	6/10[16]
Sputnikmusic	[17]
Ultimate Guitar	8.7/10[18]

Phil Freeman wrote for AllMusic to compliment the group for opting to write songs with actual expression and not merely showing their technical talent off; he described The Collective as "a cohesive aesthetic experience, meant to be heard from beginning to end", and rated it 4 stars out of 5.[5] At Ultimate Guitar, the staff praised the album, describing the group as part of "the next generation of Vais and Satrianis", and noting that the group often use "mellower" material on the album instead of instrumental heavy metal at all times.[18] Sputnikmusic Thompson D. Gerhart rated The Collective an "excellent" 5.0 out of 5, and said that despite the lack of musical evolution between this album and the previous one, it was still their best yet.[17] Blabbermouth.net applauded The Collective as what reviewer Scott Alisoglu described as "an instrumental album every bit as musically engrossing and melodically enchanting as one with vocals", as he stated that Scale the Summit's "performances are [not] over the top in a technical sense" because the members of the group come together to "[create] a whole that is greater than the sum of those four parts". He closed his review by saying that although the band had not "reinvented the instrumental form", they have made an album thereof with greater coherency than is typical of the genre.[14]

Credits adapted from AllMusic.[5]

Scale the Summit

• Chris Letchford – lead guitar
• Travis Levrier – rhythm guitar
• Jordan Eberhardt – bass
• Pat Skeffington – drums

Additional personnel

• Mark Lewis – production, engineering, mixing, recording
• Alan Douches – mastering
• David Aron Hopper – art direction, design
• Steven R. Gilmore – photography