Manilla Road - The Books of Skelos

Manilla Road - The Books of Skelos from the album The Courts of Chaos 1990.

[@shpadoinkle906]

R.I.P. Mark. Thank you so much for the tunes.

[@CAINACC]

one of the best Manilla Road songs in my own opinion...if not the best one!!!

[@frankinchickenb9020]

i love them all. The deluge, the return of the old ones, the other side, are some of my favorites.

[@tournication]

true! this one or "Dragon Star".

[@valerizaykov179]

flaming metal systems ,necropolis are mine

[@qayss8977]

Venusian sea!

[@martinvandrunen8810]

@@valerizaykov179 mine too

[@kaizen1901]

Heavy Metal at it's best! R.I.P Mark! Thank you!

[@CAINACC]

Rest in peace Mark, your Music and your legend will live forever !!!

[@kareliask]

This album has grown on me so much. Courts of Chaos may have some weak tracks, but its highlights are amongst the top of their output.

[@unclejackluminous1470]

To me, there are zero weak tracks on Courts of Chaos. It's my favorite Manilla Road album.

[@adrianaslund8605]

I was told to believe by allmusic guide that this album kind of sucked. But no everything Ive heard is pretty good. From Beyond has a sense of unfiltered chaos to it. A Touch of Madness has that bridge that's incredibly epic. The part where Mark belts about some labyrinth. All of the album has good atmosphere. The title track has a great guitarsolo. This track's guitarsolos has also grown on me. Overall its got an atmosphere that's generally superior to their other albums.

[@lostwisdom7608]

@@adrianaslund8605 as a fun fact, this song was actually recorded for Out of the Abyss but was cut. It was included as a bonus track for Courts of Chaos later. You can tell it came from OOTA because it has real drums, and CoC used a drum machine programmed by Randy Foxe with his own samples.

[@adrianaslund8605]

@@lostwisdom7608 Man. Manilla Road has fantastic drumwork! Even when its programmed. Manilla Road actually made me pay attention to basslines and drumwork growing up. And also the idea of the solo being not filler but an emotional climax. If you listen to later period Iron Maiden for example. Solos feel more like a filler in between the second chorus and the last. Manilla Road really made me reevaluate that idea. My parents listened alot to Pink Floyd when I grew up and I get the same sort of emotional feeling from Mark Shelton's guitar solos. I like how he uses feedback and effect and makes his guitar work feel alive and organic. Abit like Jimi Hendrix. It feels muscular and intuitive. Not overly precise like a regular power metal guitarist. More soulful.

[@TharaAkVar]

Can't believe this wasn't in the original pressing. The best track from the album in my opinion.

[@IntercactusYKW]

It was supposed to be on OOTA but from what I know, either they couldn't fit it or Chastain didn't want it, so they had to put it off. That's why the drumming here isn't programmed like the rest of the album

[@frankinchickenb9020]

RIP Mark. Very sad day

[@luispelayo9235]

The Courts of Chaos is highly underrated. Epic stuff from beginning to end. Greetings from Mexico!

[@pierretoavrishpior8819]

Again a masterpiece.

[@francescolaruffa3441]

All their songs are masterpieces

[@blackenedimages8273]

My heart still sinks when I listen to MR. RIP Mark, thanks for the awesome music and good times.

[@chrisk3144]

Damn!After all these years when i think of Epic Metal this song comes in mind..

[@Sneakstir]

Beautiful

[@alex-hi2gv]

Legend

[@francescolaruffa3441]

Masterpiece of Metal music

[@MichuP1]

"Before the mighty.... floooOOOOOoood!!!" Fuckin epic!!

[@matsbg7712]

Amazing song! Strange to think of that it was a cd exclusive bonus track.

[@matsbg7712]

What I meant by that was more along the lines of "Why was this a bonus track when it's the best track off the entire album?" :)

[@alex-hi2gv]

Thanks Manilla Road

[@BeingofEvil]

this song is about Cthulhu, awesome, one of my favourite heavy metal band - Ironsword inspired their vocals on this masterpiece.

[@Elric6Of6Melnibone6]

Book of Skelos is from RE Howard's Conan. But Lovecraft and he exchanged ideas, so maybe it got entangled in both Mythoi.

[@ARTalive01]

Mean As hell riffs! One of the finest!

[@Revener666]

R.I.P

[@fp1979]

Amazing... Thanks mark for all... Rip

[@adrianaslund8605]

0:41 What makes this chord sequence magical is that it moves from an A Minor then to asus2 to an inverted D Major with the F# being the lowest note of the chord. Piano teachers sometimes tell you that inversions of a chord are interchangeable but if you just play the D Major straight it sounds completely wrong. It has to be inverted. And then the sequence ends on an F major chord.

[@Ryan-qn1wr]

Doesn't sound that wrong to me, I love using a D major chord in an A minor progression, it's got that mystical dorian mode feel.

[@adrianaslund8605]

@@Ryan-qn1wr I think It's noticeable to the point where I went "aha" when I first came across it. I think inversions add a completely different color to it. It sounds more solemn and dramatic. If you play it straight up. It just sounds too bright. Depends on how you support it with the other hand I guess. If you play both a D major triad and an F# sharp underneath it sounds alright. But I think you should play the F# at the first beat and then the rest of the chord. Like there's this really good art pop band from the 80's called Scritti Politti that uses alot of inversions to add a certain flair to it. There sugary sweet and the opposite of metal but I think songs like "All that we are" and "Absolute" are pretty cool. Especially the production with its panorations and crisp sound.

[@Ryan-qn1wr]

@@adrianaslund8605 Yeah, Its not that they dont sound different, more that they dont really sound wrong to me. Obviously the inversion sounds better here, but the standard d major chord in this key sounds good in other contexts.

[@Nosfeicon]

I love that comment

[@kikksterka]

RIP Mark The Shark.....

[@vladimirurss]

Master Fucking Piece

[@Malkontente]

Epic song

[@rememberbeginning]

Metal as fuck!

[@Nosfeicon]

Three books of human flesh Of Magik, life and death Of times long lost to man Creation of the damned Before the ancient gods And Dreams of Eschaton The Ancients of the Muse Combated Cthulu His tentacles reach far beyond the grave These chronicles of light and life enslaved, Were penned in blood Before the mighty flood Nocturnal Lords of Death Summoned by Dragon's Breath To cleanse this holy land From sea to desert sand Like Necronomicon, And Ancient Bardic song These books hold many clues To Magik law and truth The sentinels of Hell guard every gate These chronicles of light and life enslaved Were penned in blood Before the mighty flood Nightmares turned to living hell Enchanted under the spell Dark Lords cast upon the earth Armageddon into birth By the books Holy Cross turned upside down Burning empires to the ground Aiser Legions march to war Halocaust of ancient lore In The Books Long lost Magik of our tribes Necromantic book of scribes Blood from human sacrifice Bringing life that never dies The Book Of Skulls The witch begat her only orn Concieved by blackest rites Sacrificial throats were torn To give The Demon life Life baptized in blood Mankind thrown into the maze Of a cataclysmic age Cadavers re-animate As The Priests Of Chaos prey The Book Of Skulls.

[@wojtekpatatyn3807]

Outstanding

[@nejczupan]

Im glad i saw you guys at metal camp. Love your music and some lyrics are true poetic prophecies

[@karllux-d6g]

With an almost inexistent distribution, this was the one hard to catch back in the day, but then recent reissues balanced the scales before the gates of Metal Valhalla, and History has been repaired. Unfortunately, his untimely demise put an end to an immortal Edda, in whose quest we're still at, proving the Big Music lives beyond her creators' departure, Metal or not. Interviewing the Shark in Porto, back in 2016, during the Blessed Curse tour, he told us of his plans for retrieving the entirety of MR's back catalogue and you could hear the cheers amongst the long hairs in the record-shop where the meet-and-greet was happening.. Amongst other gems, it was worth the wait for Courts of Chaos, one of the highest in MR's discog and another landMARK in Metal's History. Hail the Shark and down the nails.

[@СемёнСемёнов-ы1ь]

Yet another great epic of mighty Vanilla :3 One particular detail, I have to note about Courts, is that how MR have evolved from Nazareth'esque hard'n'heavy towards epic heavy and pushed it to gloomy thrash like here. From idealistic and romantic narrative to murky and bloodthirsty themes in the end.

[@PennyDreadful1]

Семён Семёнов Gotta love Vanilla Toad. My favourite album is De Deleuze.

[@SwissCheese667]

+IntermediateJesus Hahahaha best comment I read today :)))

[@theAxehound]

Still one of my favorites!! There are too few Psychedelic Metal bands like MR, Acid Bath and Trouble!! Prove me wrong ; )

[@konstandinospapailias9639]

thx for uploading...great memories....great band

[@Ferdy-c6w]

you guys should play this one live... it breathes all manilla road throughout... maybe next tour 😉

[@bryanpatrick3432]

Ferdy nice try ! :)

[@BeingofEvil]

5:00 wow such blast beats and evil vocal

[@axehound3718]

Fn tops 🤟🏼

[@erlonlima7759]

Muito bom.

[@unclejackluminous1470]

⚔️ VERY ⚔️ FUGGIN ⚔️ METAL ⚔️

[@ThrashXumer]

Sounds like Rush! 2:29

[@Cok94]

Conde Yeah their guitar clean part sound like Rush but in a malefic way, from Hell! I love both the bands!

[@markusschlag588]

Amazing! what does Randy Play at 1:32? closing hihat+Share?

[@Cok94]

Markus Schlag yes

[@Cok94]

His drumming is superb. I think it's unique

[@gouortenklif6861]

The drums on this are just programmed samples of his kit.

[@АлександрВерховенко-г8ю]

Вещь

[@CountBeetle]

Skelos

[@SKELOS666]

sup

[@fogitotv5472]

tattoo

[@krolpustkowia]

Płaczę

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

Sounds kinda like Dokken+Skynyrd.

[@theloner6063]

Try Crystal Logic album

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

@@theloner6063 I've listened to the full thing,think I've listened to this one in full too but not as sure. All very good stuff though.