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[clinton/website/site/unknownlamer.org.git] / Music I Enjoy.muse

I have a [[http://www.last.fm/user/unknown_lamer/][last.fm]] account.

* The Bands I Like the Most

** Skyclad

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

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

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

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.