Pioneering British folk-thrash-heavy metal band Skyclad (the brainchild of Pariah’s Graeme English and Steve Ramsey, along with the incomparable Martin Walkyier of Sabbat, who quit Skyclad and rejoined his former band some years back), performing Thin Lizzy’s ‘Emerald’. Skyclad are awesome and would be if just for the masterful guitar and bass playing of the NWoBHM veterans at its core, and the inspired lyrical genius of Walkyier (with his penchant for puns and wry humour); but they are also a highly political band, exuding the kind of critical, anti-imperialist (and at the same time rooted) egalitarianism that I’ve come to greatly appreciate and embrace (as well as being environmentalist, though not of the noisome Malthusian sort who have grown in prominence recently). Check out also their patriotic ballad ‘Moongleam and Meadowsweet’ from their debut album The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth (deep, deep shades of Ralph McTell on that song, and not just in the singing); also compare and contrast with the considerably more critical (and slightly more punk-sounding) ‘Think Back and Lie of England’ from their 2000 Folkémon album.
Awesome, awesome stuff, regardless of whether they’re doing sweet-and-peaceful or heavy-and-angry. Enjoy, folks!
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