DIES IRAE

From the very first moment I felt in love with the sound from Sky. They play an accessible and melodic blend of classical and rock (blended with other styles like jazz and some folk). After buying their first two LP's, I discovered this maxi-single when it was just released in 1980.

1. Dies Irae (7.43) : This mid-long piece delivers a pleasant, catchy mid-tempo with a lush synthesizer sound, a tight and propulsive rhythm-section and the typical Sky interplay between the electric - and acoustic guitar (from famous classical guitarplayer John Williams). The final part features a fiery and distorted electric guitar solo from Kevin Peek and mellow synthesizer flights from Francis Monkman (ex-Curved Air).

2. March To The Scaffold (4.51) : This piece builds up with first interplay between bass and classical guitar, then the dynamic rhythm-section and sparkling classical piano follows. The music culminates in the very distinctive Sky sound: a wonderful, very melodic blend of classical and rock, from mellow to bombastic with great interplay from all the musicians (they knew each other well as sessions musicians).

Day of wrath

Dies Irae is a non-album (12") single by Sky released in 1980. The A-side is a seven and a half minutes long up-tempo, instrumental piece in the style of early Sky. The track would have fitted very well on any of the band's first two full-length studio releases and is up to par with much material from those albums. If you are a fan of those albums, you will almost certainly enjoy Dies Irae as well. The track has since appeared as a bonus track on some re-releases of the self-titled debut (and I think also on some rare compilation album(s)).

The B-side is March Of The Scaffold, a Classical piece that was previously unreleased at the time, but later appeared on Sky 4.

Being a single (with only the A-side being of real interest), this is of course far from essential. But it is a good piece of classic Sky and as such it is worthy of the fan's attention.