Review by Ben for Skyclad - Wayward Sons of Mother Earth (1991)

I'm completely torn on this album. On the one hand, it has some quite decent melodies and thrash riffing that I enjoy. On the other hand, it has Martin Walkyier's horrible vocals and a bunch of boring and awkward elements. Martin's vocals ruined what was otherwise decent thrash metal in the band Sabbat and his work here is just as irritating. His unfortunate lisp and tendency to sing repetitive song structures while emphasising one syllable at a time is just plain infuriating.

Anyway, if I can ignore him for long enough, tracks such as The Sky Beneath My Feet, The Cradle Will Fall, Skyclad and Terminus all have great sections that I enjoy. Unfortunately, while I see it as a good quality for a band to have variety and experimentation, tracks like The Widdershins Jig, Moongleam and Meadowsweet and moments throughout most other tracks just don't sit well with me. I'm sure this album has an appropriate audience that would find this amazing, but I can't see this as anything more than merely OK.