Music I Enjoy.html

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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 &quot;The Present Imperfect&quot; and &quot;Another Fine Mess&quot;
  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&mdash;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: &quot;Cancer of the Heart&quot; and
 104 &quot;Vintage Whine&quot; on <em>Vintage Whine</em>, and &quot;The Antibody Politic,&quot; &quot;The
 105 Disenchanted Forest,&quot; and &quot;Think Back and Lie of England&quot; 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
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 182 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
 183     January 21, 2013</p>
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