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	6	<title>Music I Enjoy</title>
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	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
	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>
	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
	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>
	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
	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>
	98
	99	<p>The last two Skyclad albums with Martin Walkyier (the original singer)
	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
	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>
	106
	107	<p>Alas, after <em>Folkémon</em> Martin left, and the band seems to have lost its
	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
	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>
	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
	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>
	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
	148	<p>I'm not really digging <em>Blood</em> that much, but it's not bad.</p>
	149
	150
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	179	<p class="cke-footer"> (1) _Of course_ we made sure it was actually too slow before making
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	182	<p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
	183	January 21, 2013</p>
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