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6 | <title>Music I Enjoy</title> | |
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17 | <body> | |
18 | <h1>Music I Enjoy</h1> | |
19 | <div class="contents"> | |
20 | <dl> | |
21 | <dt> | |
22 | <a href="#sec1">The Bands I Like the Most</a> | |
23 | </dt> | |
24 | <dd> | |
25 | <dl> | |
26 | <dt> | |
27 | <a href="#sec2">Skyclad</a> | |
28 | </dt> | |
29 | <dt> | |
30 | <a href="#sec3">Kevin Moore</a> | |
31 | </dt> | |
32 | <dd> | |
33 | <dl> | |
34 | <dt> | |
35 | <a href="#sec4">Chroma Key</a> | |
36 | </dt> | |
37 | <dt> | |
38 | <a href="#sec5">OSI</a> | |
39 | </dt> | |
40 | </dl> | |
41 | </dd> | |
42 | </dl> | |
43 | </dd> | |
44 | </dl> | |
45 | </div> | |
46 | ||
47 | ||
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48 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --> |
49 | <p>I have a <a href="http://www.last.fm/user/unknown_lamer/">last.fm</a> account.</p> | |
2aff8b5c | 50 | |
51 | <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a> | |
52 | The Bands I Like the Most</h2> | |
53 | ||
54 | <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a> | |
55 | Skyclad</h3> | |
56 | ||
57 | <p class="first">Skyclad is incredible folk metal. The first two albums (<em>Wayward Sons | |
58 | of Mother Earth</em> and <em>Burnt Offerings for the Bone Idol</em>) are Testament | |
c91a896f | 59 | style thrash with a bit of fiddle and keys and a heavy dose of |
60 | NWOBHM. The third album, <em>Jonah's Ark</em>, blunts the edge of the guitars | |
61 | and adds a lot more fiddle and is really where the band goes from | |
62 | making good to incredible music.</p> | |
2aff8b5c | 63 | |
64 | <p><em>Prince of the Poverty Line</em> is about as 'heavy' as the first two | |
65 | albums, but the the song structures are far more worked out and there | |
66 | is an interesting infusion of folk and power metal into the sound. The | |
67 | songs are mostly scathing social critiques of the state of society at | |
68 | the time. The follow up, <em>Silent Whales of Lunar Sea</em>, is a decent album | |
69 | but is scarred by terrible recording quality and mixing. It has | |
70 | listenable songs (with "The Present Imperfect" and "Another Fine Mess" | |
71 | standing out), and the only really noteable aspect is the slight | |
72 | change toward a much less thrashy riff structure.</p> | |
73 | ||
74 | <p><em>Irrational Anthems</em> more than made up for <em>Silent Whales of Lunar | |
75 | Sea</em>. The less thrashy and slightly more punkish riffing structure | |
76 | takes over here and the songs are all fast paced with guitar and | |
77 | fiddle duels taking place often</p> | |
78 | ||
79 | <p>The next two albums see the electric guitar deemphasized and the band | |
80 | making something more like heavy rock than heavy metal. The EP <em>Oui | |
81 | Avante Garde a Chance</em> starts out with a fast paced fiddle oriented | |
82 | song, moves into a nearly entirely fiddle and acoustic guitar song, | |
83 | and then goes into a few slow songs dominated by keys and fiddle. The | |
84 | albums picks up in intensity with <em>Bombjour</em>, and then has an acoustic | |
85 | version of a song from the previous album. The new material ends with | |
86 | the slow and intense <em>Badtime Story</em>. A couple of covers and an | |
87 | instrumental version of a song follow to pad the EP to album length.</p> | |
88 | ||
c91a896f | 89 | <p><em>The Answer Machine?</em> was once my favorite album in my entire |
90 | collection. Most of the songs have a fuzzy electric guitar and an | |
91 | acoustic guitar going at the same time, and the album is music that I | |
92 | have found is listenable to people who don't like metal. The fiddle, | |
93 | violin, and piano dominate and are backed by interesting bass and just | |
94 | the right amount of guitar. The album is a pseudo-concept album; each | |
95 | song is about a different quest for the answer to life. Unfortunately, | |
96 | here is also where the influence of their producer can start to be | |
97 | felt—a lot of things seem to be done for the sake of <em>sensibility</em>.</p> | |
2aff8b5c | 98 | |
9be210c0 | 99 | <p>The last two Skyclad albums with Martin Walkyier (the original singer) |
2aff8b5c | 100 | see a two step return to a more metal style, but this time something |
101 | resembling <em>Powerslave</em> era Maiden with heavy folk overtones rather than | |
c91a896f | 102 | Testament. Both albums are fairly strong, and have a few songs that |
103 | are among the best Skyclad has ever done: "Cancer of the Heart" and | |
104 | "Vintage Whine" on <em>Vintage Whine</em>, and "The Antibody Politic," "The | |
105 | Disenchanted Forest," and "Think Back and Lie of England" on <em>Folkémon</em>.</p> | |
2aff8b5c | 106 | |
c91a896f | 107 | <p>Alas, after <em>Folkémon</em> Martin left, and the band seems to have lost its |
2aff8b5c | 108 | magic. It is much like At the Gates; the core members meshed quite |
109 | well together and lost some magical chemistry upon a major component | |
c91a896f | 110 | leaving. Skyclad's first album with the new singer was ok, and the |
111 | followup was a bit better. Unfortunately Kevin Ridley appears unable | |
112 | to sing aggressively.</p> | |
2aff8b5c | 113 | |
114 | ||
115 | <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a> | |
116 | Kevin Moore</h3> | |
117 | ||
118 | <p class="first">Kevin Moore is the first keyboardist of Dream Theater who left after | |
119 | <em>Awake</em>. His work since then has surpassed the quality of everything | |
120 | Dream Theater has produced since then for he posesses a unique | |
121 | songwriting style and wonderful artistic ability.</p> | |
122 | ||
123 | <h4><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a> | |
124 | Chroma Key</h4> | |
125 | ||
c91a896f | 126 | <p class="first">Chroma Key is (was?) Kevin Moore's primary project. It is mostly |
127 | electronic and fairly mellow. Secretly I like it (don't tell anyone I | |
128 | listen to anything not metal).</p> | |
2aff8b5c | 129 | |
130 | ||
131 | <h4><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a> | |
132 | OSI</h4> | |
133 | ||
134 | <p class="first">OSI was originally a collaboration between Kevin Moore, Jim Matheos | |
135 | (guitarist of Fates Warning), Mike Portnoy (drummer of Dream Theater), | |
136 | and a few other prog rock/metal people. The first album, <em>Office of | |
137 | Strategic Influence</em> was a moderately heavy and good album that sounded | |
138 | quite similar to <em>Disconnected</em> Fates Warning with Kevin Moore on vocals | |
139 | and complicated drumming.</p> | |
140 | ||
141 | <p><em>Free</em> followed three years later and is completely different from the | |
142 | first. This time the album was done with Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos | |
143 | alone, and it finds a much nicer balance between keyboard and | |
144 | guitar. The first OSI sounded too much like Fates Warning with more | |
145 | ambient keyboarding; this one has a sound of its own. My ears have | |
146 | heard this album many times, and will listen again many more.</p> | |
147 | ||
c91a896f | 148 | <p>I'm not really digging <em>Blood</em> that much, but it's not bad.</p> |
149 | ||
2aff8b5c | 150 | |
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179 | <p class="cke-footer"> (1) _Of course_ we made sure it was actually too slow before making |
180 | the ugly optimization. | |
2aff8b5c | 181 | </p> |
182 | <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified: | |
f6d19803 | 183 | January 21, 2013</p> |
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