![[ Viewable With Any Browser
]](img/buttons/w3c_ab.png)
![[ Powered by Debian ]](img/buttons/debian.png)
![[ Hosted by HCoop]](img/buttons/hcoop.png)
![[ FSF Associate Member ]](img/buttons/fsf_member.png)
I have a last.fm account.
Skyclad is incredible folk metal. The first two albums (Wayward Sons of Mother Earth and Burnt Offerings for the Bone Idol) are Testament style thrash with a bit of fiddle and keys and a heavy dose of NWOBHM. The third album, Jonah's Ark, blunts the edge of the guitars and adds a lot more fiddle and is really where the band goes from making good to incredible music.
Prince of the Poverty Line is about as 'heavy' as the first two albums, but the the song structures are far more worked out and there is an interesting infusion of folk and power metal into the sound. The songs are mostly scathing social critiques of the state of society at the time. The follow up, Silent Whales of Lunar Sea, is a decent album but is scarred by terrible recording quality and mixing. It has listenable songs (with "The Present Imperfect" and "Another Fine Mess" standing out), and the only really noteable aspect is the slight change toward a much less thrashy riff structure.
Irrational Anthems more than made up for Silent Whales of Lunar Sea. The less thrashy and slightly more punkish riffing structure takes over here and the songs are all fast paced with guitar and fiddle duels taking place often
The next two albums see the electric guitar deemphasized and the band making something more like heavy rock than heavy metal. The EP Oui Avante Garde a Chance starts out with a fast paced fiddle oriented song, moves into a nearly entirely fiddle and acoustic guitar song, and then goes into a few slow songs dominated by keys and fiddle. The albums picks up in intensity with Bombjour, and then has an acoustic version of a song from the previous album. The new material ends with the slow and intense Badtime Story. A couple of covers and an instrumental version of a song follow to pad the EP to album length.
The Answer Machine? was once my favorite album in my entire collection. Most of the songs have a fuzzy electric guitar and an acoustic guitar going at the same time, and the album is music that I have found is listenable to people who don't like metal. The fiddle, violin, and piano dominate and are backed by interesting bass and just the right amount of guitar. The album is a pseudo-concept album; each song is about a different quest for the answer to life. Unfortunately, here is also where the influence of their producer can start to be felt—a lot of things seem to be done for the sake of sensibility.
The last two Skyclad albums with Martin Walkyier (the original singer) see a two step return to a more metal style, but this time something resembling Powerslave era Maiden with heavy folk overtones rather than Testament. Both albums are fairly strong, and have a few songs that are among the best Skyclad has ever done: "Cancer of the Heart" and "Vintage Whine" on Vintage Whine, and "The Antibody Politic," "The Disenchanted Forest," and "Think Back and Lie of England" on Folkémon.
Alas, after Folkémon Martin left, and the band seems to have lost its magic. It is much like At the Gates; the core members meshed quite well together and lost some magical chemistry upon a major component leaving. Skyclad's first album with the new singer was ok, and the followup was a bit better. Unfortunately Kevin Ridley appears unable to sing aggressively.
Kevin Moore is the first keyboardist of Dream Theater who left after Awake. His work since then has surpassed the quality of everything Dream Theater has produced since then for he posesses a unique songwriting style and wonderful artistic ability.
Chroma Key is (was?) Kevin Moore's primary project. It is mostly electronic and fairly mellow. Secretly I like it (don't tell anyone I listen to anything not metal).
OSI was originally a collaboration between Kevin Moore, Jim Matheos (guitarist of Fates Warning), Mike Portnoy (drummer of Dream Theater), and a few other prog rock/metal people. The first album, Office of Strategic Influence was a moderately heavy and good album that sounded quite similar to Disconnected Fates Warning with Kevin Moore on vocals and complicated drumming.
Free followed three years later and is completely different from the first. This time the album was done with Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos alone, and it finds a much nicer balance between keyboard and guitar. The first OSI sounded too much like Fates Warning with more ambient keyboarding; this one has a sound of its own. My ears have heard this album many times, and will listen again many more.
I'm not really digging Blood that much, but it's not bad.