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- Thread starter LooseCannon
- Start date
MindRuler
Ancient Mariner
Not a bm fan but some interesting parts!
Certainly better than Opera IX´s butchering of Rime.
Magnus
Pica Serdica
They never got a deal, did they? Bloody shame.
MindRuler
Ancient Mariner
They never did.
I loved the title (Close As Red In Blood) and that tape barely left my walkman... Very atmospheric !
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
Magnus
Pica Serdica
Indeed! Thank you for sharing it!They never did.
I loved the title (Close As Red In Blood) and that tape barely left my walkman... Very atmospheric !
Azas
Stardust
As much as I don’t want to ruin the moment—Skyforger is actually from Latvia, and I’m their neighbor. We call them braliukai (brothers).Obtest - these particular baddies, though—they’re from my country:
Magnus
Pica Serdica
Obtest - these particular baddies, though—they’re from my country:
So sorry @Azas! On so many occasions I've made fun of people mixing up Latvia and Lithuania, now the boomerang came for me.
Azas
Stardust
Damn, I’ve got such a soft spot for those first three Marillion albums. To me, the band was really onto something—something rare and beautiful—but Fish left to preserve his mental health, and history took a different turn. That early neo-prog sound is just so alluring, so thought-provoking. I still remember wandering through record stores in the early '90s and being struck by those covers. Even back then, they pulled me in.
And in this case, it’s not one of those “don’t judge a book by its cover” situations—the artwork matches the music perfectly. Both are great. Back in the pre-internet days, cover art was immensely important. It was the first impression, the emotional hook, the album’s entire promise in a single image. Mark Wilkinson really nailed it—he was Marillion’s own Derek Riggs. That combination, much like Maiden’s, was a total win. The artwork had its own mythology too—the Jester! What a brilliant mascot for a band. On Misplaced Childhood, the Jester gets replaced by a boy, but he’s still there on the back cover, sneaking out the window.
Marillion continues to fascinate me. I return to those early albums time and time again. Marillion, to me, feels like a band that never fully came into existence. They changed course and never really looked back. I’ve listened to some of the post-Fish records—liked some of it too—but it’s not the same. I need Fish at the helm, steering the ship ideologically, lyrically...
And funny coincidence: Fish’s real name is Derek William Dick. So in a way, at his core, he’s kind of like Bruce, ha ha—if you get what I mean.
A salute to these dreamers!