Year after year, and the experimentation continues, no rest for the wicked, and no cease for burning minds for further brainstorming to commemorate innovation. It would appear that there is no stopping for the British Folk Metal machine of SKYCLAD, constantly attempting to shed another layer of their past off their shoulders, getting in line with the new decade's influence into their music. Coming in with their third album, "Jonah's Ark", SKYCLAD reached a point in their journey towards their newfound enlightenment with a piece of music that would become a totem to their continuance. Sure that I am reprising myself, as I proclaimed the same on the sophomore as well. Nonetheless, each album released has a significant influence on the next, and of course general ideas drawn or left out from it, and this particular case left out would be accurate. Just from looking at the album's artwork, and new logo, would indicate there is something in the works, in particular dealing with environmental issues. Included within this release is the band's small token previous 1992 EP, "Tracks From The Wilderness", sharing some of the band's live efforts from Dynamo Festival, Eindhoven, Netherlands, along with a few left out tunes and an interesting cover to a an old classic.

When worlds collide. Another year in SKYCLAD's career, made them a step closer to Martin Walkyier's crazed vision of an English Folk Metal band. Following the vocalist largely infested political criticizing lyrics, Walkyier turned his gaze towards the environmental issues that their magnitude has been pretty much ignored. Only maybe until the next cataclysmic natural disaster that will engulf a part of the planet, or one day might take us all to Purgatory, but we all know that after a short while, it will be same old. Music wise, SKYCLAD became closer to abandoning the Thrash Metal aspects that were the main stage of their music for the past two albums, allowing the Folklore elements to lunge into the material consequently with attributes of Progressive Rock / Metal and even the 90s culprit, yet mainly triumphant, Grunge and Alternative Metal. At first I thought of it as bizarre, and I am talking nearly two decades ago, but now, older and wiser, it came into view as a logical step to take and in fact, I came to admire the end result out of this courageous proceedings.

Though the album itself is the major issue at hand, I will begin with the nice extra that was included in the Noise Records remaster, which is actually a remastered of the Japanese version of the album. "Tracks From The Wilderness" is an EP released right before the "A Burnt Offering For The Bone Idol" was out in the market. First off, I believe that it would have been wise to put it as a B-side of the sophomore, yet when thinking about it, this EP metaphorically served as the antagonist of "Jonah's Ark" due to the contrast of the musical approach. "When All Else Fails" portrayed a riff based vigorous Thrash Metal output of the band's previous legacy, once again a stumbling in the crossroads between METALLICA and MEGADETH, while tending more to the latter, however, not coming any closer to the past SABBAT. "A Room Next Door" displays a rather straight up tune, mixture of balladry and Heavy Metal simplicity, with the rugged Walkyier, the channeled vibe is ever aggressive. The band's shared venture with Brian Robertson (ex-THIN LIZZY / ex-MOTORHEAD) on the cover for THIN LIZZY's "Emerald" is notable, I enjoyed the crunch and the extra energies implemented on this heavier version. The live performances from the classic Dutch festival showed a prolific band, partying hard on stage while even upgrading the quality of one of their hits, "Spinning Jenny".

Silently approaching the extra full-length, I didn't have to wait long for an explosive set off, and "Thinking Allowed" came to town, featuring a strong opening heavy main riff, less of the thrashy elements that loomed over the previous albums but rather towards blending of tradition with the 90s Metal / Rock instigations, semi-groove in the heat of an impending attack. "Schadenfreude" on the other hand bestowed massive hints of progression, unexpected sections to be revealed, various approaches from every corner, entailing a few Grungier riffs. Undoubtedly one of the album's most interesting tunes. "Earth Mother, the Sun and the Furious Host" depicts simply, but effective, lead violin playing alongside a pure Alternative Metal riffing. A factor that slowly became a usual aspect of the band, watching SKYCLAD breaking away from their old form. Walkyier preaching against the current beliefs and religious outrights in order to actually to unfold environmental misgivings. "A Word to the Wise" symbolizes us could be realistic future, with hints that it would be worse before it would get better, without an assurance if the latter would ever happen. A true slow tempo Folk Metal groove with enough criticism to feed your needs, an atmospheric song that has an intention to tense its listener. "A Near Life Experience" is on the verge of a Folkish FAITH NO MORE tune of the same time period, flooding uncertainty between Metal and Punk, creating an intriguing inner battle of ideas and thoughts.

Listening to this album straight after the previous, didn't leave me with unanswered questions, as the answers were already known. It takes time to produce something that would be a game changer. It started out with "Jonah's Ark".