Music I Enjoy.muse

   1 I have a [[http://www.last.fm/user/unknown_lamer/][last.fm]] account.
   2
   3 * The Bands I Like the Most
   4
   5 ** Skyclad
   6
   7 Skyclad is incredible folk metal. The first two albums (*Wayward Sons
   8 of Mother Earth* and *Burnt Offerings for the Bone Idol*) are Testament
   9 style thrash with a bit of fiddle and keys and a heavy dose of
  10 NWOBHM. The third album, *Jonah's Ark*, blunts the edge of the guitars
  11 and adds a lot more fiddle and is really where the band goes from
  12 making good to incredible music.
  13
  14 *Prince of the Poverty Line* is about as 'heavy' as the first two
  15 albums, but the the song structures are far more worked out and there
  16 is an interesting infusion of folk and power metal into the sound. The
  17 songs are mostly scathing social critiques of the state of society at
  18 the time. The follow up, *Silent Whales of Lunar Sea*, is a decent album
  19 but is scarred by terrible recording quality and mixing. It has
  20 listenable songs (with "The Present Imperfect" and "Another Fine Mess"
  21 standing out), and the only really noteable aspect is the slight
  22 change toward a much less thrashy riff structure.
  23
  24 *Irrational Anthems* more than made up for *Silent Whales of Lunar
  25 Sea*. The less thrashy and slightly more punkish riffing structure
  26 takes over here and the songs are all fast paced with guitar and
  27 fiddle duels taking place often
  28
  29 The next two albums see the electric guitar deemphasized and the band
  30 making something more like heavy rock than heavy metal. The EP *Oui
  31 Avante Garde a Chance* starts out with a fast paced fiddle oriented
  32 song, moves into a nearly entirely fiddle and acoustic guitar song,
  33 and then goes into a few slow songs dominated by keys and fiddle. The
  34 albums picks up in intensity with *Bombjour*, and then has an acoustic
  35 version of a song from the previous album. The new material ends with
  36 the slow and intense *Badtime Story*. A couple of covers and an
  37 instrumental version of a song follow to pad the EP to album length.
  38
  39 *The Answer Machine?* was once my favorite album in my entire
  40 collection. Most of the songs have a fuzzy electric guitar and an
  41 acoustic guitar going at the same time, and the album is music that I
  42 have found is listenable to people who don't like metal. The fiddle,
  43 violin, and piano dominate and are backed by interesting bass and just
  44 the right amount of guitar. The album is a pseudo-concept album; each
  45 song is about a different quest for the answer to life. Unfortunately,
  46 here is also where the influence of their producer can start to be
  47 felt--a lot of things seem to be done for the sake of *sensibility*.
  48
  49 The last two Skyclad album with Martin Walkyier (the original singer)
  50 see a two step return to a more metal style, but this time something
  51 resembling *Powerslave* era Maiden with heavy folk overtones rather than
  52 Testament. Both albums are fairly strong, and have a few songs that
  53 are among the best Skyclad has ever done: "Cancer of the Heart" and
  54 "Vintage Whine" on *Vintage Whine*, and "The Antibody Politic," "The
  55 Disenchanted Forest," and "Think Back and Lie of England" on *Folkémon*.
  56
  57 Alas, after *Folkémon* Martin left, and the band seems to have lost its
  58 magic. It is much like At the Gates; the core members meshed quite
  59 well together and lost some magical chemistry upon a major component
  60 leaving. Skyclad's first album with the new singer was ok, and the
  61 followup was a bit better. Unfortunately Kevin Ridley appears unable
  62 to sing aggressively.
  63
  64 ** Kevin Moore
  65
  66 Kevin Moore is the first keyboardist of Dream Theater who left after
  67 *Awake*. His work since then has surpassed the quality of everything
  68 Dream Theater has produced since then for he posesses a unique
  69 songwriting style and wonderful artistic ability.
  70
  71 *** Chroma Key
  72
  73 Chroma Key is (was?) Kevin Moore's primary project. It is mostly
  74 electronic and fairly mellow. Secretly I like it (don't tell anyone I
  75 listen to anything not metal).
  76
  77 *** OSI
  78
  79 OSI was originally a collaboration between Kevin Moore, Jim Matheos
  80 (guitarist of Fates Warning), Mike Portnoy (drummer of Dream Theater),
  81 and a few other prog rock/metal people. The first album, *Office of
  82 Strategic Influence* was a moderately heavy and good album that sounded
  83 quite similar to *Disconnected* Fates Warning with Kevin Moore on vocals
  84 and complicated drumming.
  85
  86 *Free* followed three years later and is completely different from the
  87 first. This time the album was done with Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos
  88 alone, and it finds a much nicer balance between keyboard and
  89 guitar. The first OSI sounded too much like Fates Warning with more
  90 ambient keyboarding; this one has a sound of its own. My ears have
  91 heard this album many times, and will listen again many more.
  92
  93 I'm not really digging *Blood* that much, but it's not bad.