Music I Enjoy.html

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  16     <h1>Music I Enjoy</h1>
  17    <div class="contents">
  18 <dl>
  19 <dt>
  20 <a href="#sec1">The Bands I Like the Most</a>
  21 </dt>
  22 <dd>
  23 <dl>
  24 <dt>
  25 <a href="#sec2">Skyclad</a>
  26 </dt>
  27 <dt>
  28 <a href="#sec3">Kevin Moore</a>
  29 </dt>
  30 <dd>
  31 <dl>
  32 <dt>
  33 <a href="#sec4">Chroma Key</a>
  34 </dt>
  35 <dt>
  36 <a href="#sec5">OSI</a>
  37 </dt>
  38 </dl>
  39 </dd>
  40 </dl>
  41 </dd>
  42 </dl>
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  44
  45
  46 <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><p>I have a <a href="http://www.last.fm/user/unknown_lamer/">last.fm</a> account.</p>
  47
  48 <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
  49 The Bands I Like the Most</h2>
  50
  51 <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
  52 Skyclad</h3>
  53
  54 <p class="first">Skyclad is incredible folk metal. The first two albums (<em>Wayward Sons
  55 of Mother Earth</em> and <em>Burnt Offerings for the Bone Idol</em>) are Testament
  56 style thrash with a bit of fiddle and keys. The third album, <em>Jonah's
  57 Ark</em>, blunts the edge of the guitars and adds a lot more fiddle and is
  58 really where the band goes from making good to incredible
  59 music.</p>
  60
  61 <p><em>Prince of the Poverty Line</em> is about as 'heavy' as the first two
  62 albums, but the the song structures are far more worked out and there
  63 is an interesting infusion of folk and power metal into the sound. The
  64 songs are mostly scathing social critiques of the state of society at
  65 the time. The follow up, <em>Silent Whales of Lunar Sea</em>, is a decent album
  66 but is scarred by terrible recording quality and mixing. It has
  67 listenable songs (with &quot;The Present Imperfect&quot; and &quot;Another Fine Mess&quot;
  68 standing out), and the only really noteable aspect is the slight
  69 change toward a much less thrashy riff structure.</p>
  70
  71 <p><em>Irrational Anthems</em> more than made up for <em>Silent Whales of Lunar
  72 Sea</em>. The less thrashy and slightly more punkish riffing structure
  73 takes over here and the songs are all fast paced with guitar and
  74 fiddle duels taking place often</p>
  75
  76 <p>The next two albums see the electric guitar deemphasized and the band
  77 making something more like heavy rock than heavy metal. The EP <em>Oui
  78 Avante Garde a Chance</em> starts out with a fast paced fiddle oriented
  79 song, moves into a nearly entirely fiddle and acoustic guitar song,
  80 and then goes into a few slow songs dominated by keys and fiddle. The
  81 albums picks up in intensity with <em>Bombjour</em>, and then has an acoustic
  82 version of a song from the previous album. The new material ends with
  83 the slow and intense <em>Badtime Story</em>. A couple of covers and an
  84 instrumental version of a song follow to pad the EP to album length.</p>
  85
  86 <p><em>The Answer Machine?</em> is my favorite album in my entire collection. Most
  87 of the songs have a fuzzy electric guitar and an acoustic guitar going
  88 at the same time, and the album is music that I have found is
  89 listenable to people who don't like metal. The fiddle, violin, and
  90 piano dominate and are backed by interesting bass and just the right
  91 amount of guitar. The album is a pseudo-concept album; each song is
  92 about a different quest for the answer to life.</p>
  93
  94 <p>The last two Skyclad album with Martin Walkyier (the original singer)
  95 see a two step return to a more metal style, but this time something
  96 resembling <em>Powerslave</em> era Maiden with heavy folk overtones rather than
  97 Testament. Both albums lack any weak songs, and have a few that are
  98 among the best Skyclad has ever done: &quot;Cancer of the Heart,&quot; &quot;A Well
  99 Beside the River,&quot; and &quot;Vintage Whine&quot; on <em>Vintage Whine</em>, and &quot;The
 100 Antibody Politic,&quot; &quot;The Disenchanted Forest,&quot; and &quot;Think Back and Lie
 101 of England&quot; on <em>Folkemon</em>.</p>
 102
 103 <p>Alas, after <em>Folkemon</em> Martin left, and the band seems to have lost its
 104 magic. It is much like At the Gates; the core members meshed quite
 105 well together and lost some magical chemistry upon a major component
 106 leaving. Skyclad's first album with the new singer was ok, and perhaps
 107 the next one will be better. Sadly Martin Walkyier decided to abandon
 108 music forever.</p>
 109
 110
 111 <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
 112 Kevin Moore</h3>
 113
 114 <p class="first">Kevin Moore is the first keyboardist of Dream Theater who left after
 115 <em>Awake</em>. His work since then has surpassed the quality of everything
 116 Dream Theater has produced since then for he posesses a unique
 117 songwriting style and wonderful artistic ability.</p>
 118
 119 <h4><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
 120 Chroma Key</h4>
 121
 122 <p class="first">Chroma Key is Kevin Moore's primary project. It is mostly electronic
 123 and fairly mellow.</p>
 124
 125
 126 <h4><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
 127 OSI</h4>
 128
 129 <p class="first">OSI was originally a collaboration between Kevin Moore, Jim Matheos
 130 (guitarist of Fates Warning), Mike Portnoy (drummer of Dream Theater),
 131 and a few other prog rock/metal people. The first album, <em>Office of
 132 Strategic Influence</em> was a moderately heavy and good album that sounded
 133 quite similar to <em>Disconnected</em> Fates Warning with Kevin Moore on vocals
 134 and complicated drumming.</p>
 135
 136 <p><em>Free</em> followed three years later and is completely different from the
 137 first. This time the album was done with Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos
 138 alone, and it finds a much nicer balance between keyboard and
 139 guitar. The first OSI sounded too much like Fates Warning with more
 140 ambient keyboarding; this one has a sound of its own. My ears have
 141 heard this album many times, and will listen again many more.</p>
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 174 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
 175     March 13, 2008</p>
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