ONCE UPON A TIME

While the 1990s were peak period SOL INVICTUS as English neo folk Goliaths, and the 2000s were relatively weak, the 2010s marked something of a resurgence, once you get past "The Cruellest Month" and Wakeford's solo re- releases. Their last two releases as of now are among their most fully realized and proggy. The addition of AGALLOCH'S guitarist Don Anderson and Wakeford's own renaissance have a lot to do with this. "Once Upon a Time" is the first of these collaborations.

The album structure is alluring, with Anderson's FRIPP and ENO inspired clean keening and cutting guitar instrumentals alternating with songs that are thematically focused on the devil, all sensitively arranged and coloured with keys, strings and winds as we have come to expect. Wakeford's has a way of coaxing every scintilla of drama out of a decent melody in a way that a technically better vocalist could not, no better illustrated than in the glittering "Path Less Travelled". The folksy title track, the symphonic "Devil's Year", the cautionary "Our Father", the vitriolic "War" (a HENRY COW cover), and the Gothic "Osman" represent the numerous other high points.

For the generic progarchives reader, I might recommend this one as a starting point for your exploration of the group, notwithstanding that once upon a time they were in the vanguard of the early neo folk movement and that you should definitely check out their 1990s classics.