- Nov 24, 2002
- 14,108
- 158
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I was waiting for a mini-haul from CDConnection and instead one from The End arrived 
The Jelly Jam - "The Jelly Jam 2": this side project was formed in due time by John Myung and Derek Sherinian of Dream Theater with Rod Morgenstein (Morgenstein/Rudess, Dixie Dregs) and Ty Tabor (King's X) as Platypus. After two albums Sherinian left and the remaining trio changed name to The Jelly Jam. Now on their second album they repeat the same formula, soft rock/prog rock with weird changes, crazy mixes but with enough sparkles of metal to make it nice and listenable.
Ring Of Fire - "Lapse Of Reality". Former Yngwie Malmsteen singer Mark Boals, decided to do some solo stuff after his two passes with the Swedish umbereable shredder (NOTE: I have all YM albums, so shut up!). For that he enlisted no other than the amazing Tony MacAlpine on guitars and his former Planet X partner Virgil Donati on drums, plus Vitali Kuprij (Artension) and some bass support Mark made his debut Ring Of Fire album (mostly available in Italy and Japan). After the experience he decided to make Ring Of Fire his project/band, for the debut he changed the guitar to George Bellas (so I skip it), then MacAlpine returned and two more albums came along (plus one as solo artist with various instrumentalists). Now Ring Of Fire deliver his brand new album, Kuprij is out being replaced by session keyboardist Steven Weingart and also great Philip Bynoe (Steve Vai) jump for the bass position.
The music is kind of neo-classical stuff (without Yngwie shredding) plus some jazz/prog fusion thrown inside. Boals vocals of course dominate the songs, but the instruments work is of course noticeable for its quality. Maybe kind of boring for some more hard metal followers, but quite enjoyable for people accustom to this kind of stuff (like me ).
Skyclad - 'Oui Avant-Garde A Chance': I started with Skyclad all mixed-up (with the amazing "Vintage Whine") and then went back and forth, until I just finished the whole collection (with exception of the IMPOSSIBLE to get "Burnt Offering For The Bone Idol"). The early Skyclad which started as a side project of Pariah and Sabbath both British thrash bands, was pretty much also a thrash band with the harsh Walkyier vocals and the great composition of English and Ramsey (bass and guitar). The distinction was the intention to add a fiddle and some folk-epic elements. The band progressed with the folk attitude but retaining mostly the heavy thrash stuff until "The Silent Whales Of Lunar Sea", then they changed a lot into the folk stuff leaving a lot of the thrash and becoming a much more interesting and enjoyable band IMO. From"this album up to "Vintage Whine" the band produced a lot of great music with some power overtones here and there. This album and the next one shows the most melodic side of the band, being much less metallic than its predecessors still to me their best work.
The band was plagued with a lot of line-up changes, but since Georgina 'George' Biddle jump aboard as a permanent violin and keyboards member and always under the production of Kevin Ridley (then second guitar and now main vocalist after Walkyier departure), the band become pretty stable and solid (nevertheless experimented several line-up changes in the drumming department). By the time of 'Folkemon' the then obvious internal riffs between Walkyier and the rest of the band exhausted the formula, luckily the band has come back stronger than ever with "A Semblance Of Normality".
Skyclad - "The Answer Machine?". Like their two 1996 predecessors, this album shows the most melodic and folky side of Skyclad, but also some powerish elements that are more prominent in "Vintage Whine" and "A Semblance Of Normality". The vocals of Walkyier continued its progression from the harsh thrash approach of the early albums, but never transformed in a sweeted product.
...and then some
Entering my friend Darren to collect some money he owed me I came out with money and a free CD (muahahahaha). An incredible shot of luck in this forsaken country. Blind Guardian - "Legendary Songs" being kind of an official bbotleg this album compile some demos from the SFB and IFTOS and then the cool stuff. The complete Lucifer's Heritage (BG original name) demo "Symphonies Of Doom" (I see some SS material here ), 'Ride The Sky' live with Kai Hansen, Demons & Wizard live covering Alice Cooper ('School's Out'), Iron Maiden ('The Trooper') and BG ('Welcome To Dying'), and to complete the package two real jewels:
a) Blind Guardian studio cover of Deep Purple 'Hallelujah' (as 'Allelujah'). A single that was the first Mk.II recording shows Gillan delivering an awsome emotional vocal performance. This version is great as powerful with Hansi hard voice and BG potent playing, truly joyful stuff to me.
b) Nepal (Argentinean thrash band that featured Beto Vazquez on bass) playing 'Besando La Tierra' with Hansi Kursch on vocals too (in Spanish horrible but fun) and Georgina Biddle (Skyclad) on violin.
I never heard before of this BG album, but surely was a neat catch in an used store, that doesn't specialized in CDs, much less in metal, and much more less in my country!
The Jelly Jam - "The Jelly Jam 2": this side project was formed in due time by John Myung and Derek Sherinian of Dream Theater with Rod Morgenstein (Morgenstein/Rudess, Dixie Dregs) and Ty Tabor (King's X) as Platypus. After two albums Sherinian left and the remaining trio changed name to The Jelly Jam. Now on their second album they repeat the same formula, soft rock/prog rock with weird changes, crazy mixes but with enough sparkles of metal to make it nice and listenable.
Ring Of Fire - "Lapse Of Reality". Former Yngwie Malmsteen singer Mark Boals, decided to do some solo stuff after his two passes with the Swedish umbereable shredder (NOTE: I have all YM albums, so shut up!). For that he enlisted no other than the amazing Tony MacAlpine on guitars and his former Planet X partner Virgil Donati on drums, plus Vitali Kuprij (Artension) and some bass support Mark made his debut Ring Of Fire album (mostly available in Italy and Japan). After the experience he decided to make Ring Of Fire his project/band, for the debut he changed the guitar to George Bellas (so I skip it), then MacAlpine returned and two more albums came along (plus one as solo artist with various instrumentalists). Now Ring Of Fire deliver his brand new album, Kuprij is out being replaced by session keyboardist Steven Weingart and also great Philip Bynoe (Steve Vai) jump for the bass position.
The music is kind of neo-classical stuff (without Yngwie shredding) plus some jazz/prog fusion thrown inside. Boals vocals of course dominate the songs, but the instruments work is of course noticeable for its quality. Maybe kind of boring for some more hard metal followers, but quite enjoyable for people accustom to this kind of stuff (like me
).Skyclad - 'Oui Avant-Garde A Chance': I started with Skyclad all mixed-up (with the amazing "Vintage Whine") and then went back and forth, until I just finished the whole collection (with exception of the IMPOSSIBLE to get "Burnt Offering For The Bone Idol"). The early Skyclad which started as a side project of Pariah and Sabbath both British thrash bands, was pretty much also a thrash band with the harsh Walkyier vocals and the great composition of English and Ramsey (bass and guitar). The distinction was the intention to add a fiddle and some folk-epic elements. The band progressed with the folk attitude but retaining mostly the heavy thrash stuff until "The Silent Whales Of Lunar Sea", then they changed a lot into the folk stuff leaving a lot of the thrash and becoming a much more interesting and enjoyable band IMO. From"this album up to "Vintage Whine" the band produced a lot of great music with some power overtones here and there. This album and the next one shows the most melodic side of the band, being much less metallic than its predecessors still to me their best work.
The band was plagued with a lot of line-up changes, but since Georgina 'George' Biddle jump aboard as a permanent violin and keyboards member and always under the production of Kevin Ridley (then second guitar and now main vocalist after Walkyier departure), the band become pretty stable and solid (nevertheless experimented several line-up changes in the drumming department). By the time of 'Folkemon' the then obvious internal riffs between Walkyier and the rest of the band exhausted the formula, luckily the band has come back stronger than ever with "A Semblance Of Normality".
Skyclad - "The Answer Machine?". Like their two 1996 predecessors, this album shows the most melodic and folky side of Skyclad, but also some powerish elements that are more prominent in "Vintage Whine" and "A Semblance Of Normality". The vocals of Walkyier continued its progression from the harsh thrash approach of the early albums, but never transformed in a sweeted product.
...and then some
Entering my friend Darren to collect some money he owed me I came out with money and a free CD (muahahahaha). An incredible shot of luck in this forsaken country. Blind Guardian - "Legendary Songs" being kind of an official bbotleg this album compile some demos from the SFB and IFTOS and then the cool stuff. The complete Lucifer's Heritage (BG original name) demo "Symphonies Of Doom" (I see some SS material here
), 'Ride The Sky' live with Kai Hansen, Demons & Wizard live covering Alice Cooper ('School's Out'), Iron Maiden ('The Trooper') and BG ('Welcome To Dying'), and to complete the package two real jewels:a) Blind Guardian studio cover of Deep Purple 'Hallelujah' (as 'Allelujah'). A single that was the first Mk.II recording shows Gillan delivering an awsome emotional vocal performance. This version is great as powerful with Hansi hard voice and BG potent playing, truly joyful stuff to me.
b) Nepal (Argentinean thrash band that featured Beto Vazquez on bass) playing 'Besando La Tierra' with Hansi Kursch on vocals too (in Spanish horrible
but fun) and Georgina Biddle (Skyclad) on violin.I never heard before of this BG album, but surely was a neat catch in an used store, that doesn't specialized in CDs, much less in metal, and much more less in my country!
