LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Skyclad: Albums
built 217 days ago
Skyclad's most recent release is an EP, Jig-a-Jig, self-released by the Band. A new album had been planned for Fall 2006 but Black Lotus Records, went out of business just a few months after Skyclad had signed to it in early 2006.
Source:
[I]t was in 1993 that Skyclad released their first classic album. "Jonah's Ark" saw a slight change in style in favour of more violin parts and slightly less thrashing, but it was a decision that ... allowed the band to write songs that were much more memorable than before, such as "Thinking Allowed" (released as the band's first single), "Bewilderbeast" and "Earth Mother, the Sun and the Furious Host". The songs were also given a better production this time around and the lyrics (as ever) were bang on. the band even went as far as to record a spoken word poem, "Tunnel Visionaries" which offered itself as an introduction to the near epic "A Word to the Wise". "Jonah's Ark" is probably the most varied release the band ever made, and demonstrates them at their creative peak. It was going to be a difficult act to follow.
Source:
Von 1992 bis 1996 veröffentlichen Skyclad außerdem sechs weitere Alben, bei denen Folkeinflüsse immer weiter in den Vordergrund treten. Diese Entwicklung erreicht schließlich mit dem '97er Album „The Answer Machine?“ einen vorläufigen Höhepunkt - Skyclad spielen zu dieser Zeit Folkrock, die Heavy-Metal-Elemente sind fast vollständig verschwunden. Nach mehreren Tourneen durch die deutschen Irish Pubs veröffentlichen Skyclad 1999 jedoch mit „Vintage Whine“ wieder ein Folk-Metal-Album, und auch der Nachfolger „Folkemon“ (2000) fällt recht heavy aus.
Source:
The lyrics on this album serve to further Skyclad's reputation for witty wordplay. One particularly grand pun arises from the song, "Worn Out Sole to Heel," which contains the lines, "You're worn out sole to heel/Your worn-out soul to heal." The lyrics sound a little heavy-handed at first, but they really fit well with the music and the way the vocals flow. Take for example the chanty chorus of "Helium": "I'm lighter than air--I haven't a care/Still gravity pulls me under/Credibility gaps--gullability fills/They were bringing me down (no wonder)/Square pegs, round holes, last dregs, own goals/Monkey puzzle but my fist won't fit inside/Every day nothing new, black and white deja-vu/Makes me feel I want to spread my wings and fly." The song is about a person who kills himself by jumping from a building.
Source:
One interesting feature of many Skyclad albums are short tracks, often intros or outros, that experiment with different styles of music, or different instruments. These include spoken word tracks (such as 'Tunnel Visionaries', which parodies the famous opening paragraph of The War of the Worlds), and tracks using instruments such as the bagpipes, trumpet and a bodhran not normally found within the bands repertoire.
Source:
A: Subway to Sally is a german band that performes about the same style of music as Skyclad. They use some more classic influenses and sing in German. They performed on the Skyclad album Oui Avant-Garde a Change.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Albums