Road to darkness --- Gandalf's Fist --- 2011 (Gandalf's Fist)
Now, I know what you're thinking: with a name like Gandalf's Fist, and an album cover curiously reminiscent of Genesis' seminal “Nursery cryme”, this has prog rock written all over it, right? Well, this will stun you rigid, but you're right. Gandalf's Fist is essentially two guys, Dean Marsh and Luke Severn, who have been together and making music since 2005. They do indeed draw heavily upon prog rock influences, so heavily in fact that it's tantamount to copying in places, as I found when I listened to this, their second full album. Which is not to say that it's a bad album, just not very original, when I believe it could and should have been.
This is a concept album. Remember them? Gandalf's Fist aim to bring back the pure joy of listening to an album all the way through, which Bill Bailey recently remarked has become something of an oddity in these days of ipods, playlists and single-downloadable-tracks. No more do we have to suffer through tracks we don't like, skip or move past them. Nowadays we can select what we want to hear from an album and ignore the rest. Or we can add the tracks we like to a playlist, leaving the ones we don't languishing in the land of seldom-played-songs. Some software will, if we tell it to, ensure we never hear track A again if we don't want to, cutting it out of its algorithm so that it is never selected.
But concept albums, by their very nature, demand and require we listen to every track, as (if the album is constructed correctly) each song, piece of music, instrumental or spoken passage is there to advance the narrative, take us along the storyline and make sense out of what we're listening to. Would you even think of taking a novel, reading the first 100 pages, then skipping over the next 40 and trying to pick up the story after them? You'd be hopelessly lost. Now imagine playing “The lamb lies down on Broadway”, but missing out tracks like “The lamia” and “The colony of slippermen” (those of you who are familiar with that album know what I'm talking about; those who are not, I recommend you make its acquaintance without further delay!) or “The wall” without “One of my turns” or “Mother”. Just wouldn't make the same sense it does if you go all the way from opening track to closing track. You get much more of a feel for, and an understanding of, what the artiste is trying to get across to you when you listen all the way through.
So it is with this album. The basic story is set on Io, (one of the moons of Jupiter, if you didn't know) to which one Lucy, a young girl intentionally meant to resemble Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz”, is transported by an evil sorcerer. The plot will (hopefully) unfold as the album progresses, but this is one album that needs to be listened to all the way through. The music encapsulates, apparently, seventies progressive rock like Yes, Genesis and Rush, as well as blues, folk, instrumental of course and even spoken narrative. To quote the band,
”the sound could be roughly categorized as Arthur C Clarke taking guitar lessons from David Gilmour before jumping into a Delorean to kidnap L Frank Baum.”
Sadly, I found as I listened to it that "Road to darkness" failed to live up to that rather grandiose and exciting premise. I also found the plot hard to follow, but that could be down to the inordinate amount of instrumentals on an album of 10 tracks.
So, still interested? Oh, you know you are! Comfortable? Well, then, we'll begin.
It opens on what sounds like a jews harp (but is more likely to be a synth), then weird, spacey noises on definitely a synth and heavy drumming cuts in as “No place cyclone” begins. It's a short track, just over two minutes, and with no singing yet I have to assume it's going to turn out to be an instrumental. The basic theme repeats and echoes through it, giving me a sense of Vangelis' “Beauborg”, though without the hard percussion. Creepy, for sure. Thing turn decidely proggy however with the arrival of “Emerald eyes”, with a very Genesis/Marillion feel to it, lovely lush keyboards and now we hear the voice of Luke Severn, and comparisons definitely have to be drawn with Roger Waters; even the melody sounds a little like the opening of Floyd's “Echoes”, no surprise as GF revere the pink ones.
Lovely breakout guitar solo then from Dean Marsh which stands on equal ground with the best of Gilmour, and more Floyd comparisons rise with the Clare Torry-esque female vocal more than halfway through the track. Personally, I'd hope GF establish more of their own identity on this album, as it's just a little
too close to Floyd for my liking at this particular moment.
Harpsichord opening to “Conjurer of cheap tricks”, another instrumental, sets a totally different scene, with hard guitar joining warbly keyboard and solid organ in a mid-paced piece that takes us towards the longest track, but not before leaving us with a soundclip from the movie (real or created I don't know) “The Wizard of Oz”, then guitar and keys intro pull us, “Into the dark”. Some very Rushesque guitar about a minute and a half in, then Luke is back with his soft and dreamy vocal, the rhythm settling down into a lazy, slow tread, my only problem being that I find it a little hard to make out what Luke's singing here; whether that's a production problem or an issue with his voice I don't know. Maybe they're trying to copy Floyd so much that they're putting too much echo/reverb/whatever on his vocal track?
Some nice, unexpectedly Iron Maiden-style guitar then, though not in the heavier vein of Bruce and the boys, more like in their power cruncher songs, and some nice soloing too. A title like “Twilight at the gates of the prism moon” is never going to avoid being labelled as prog, (really though? Could you guys have screamed “PINK FLOYD!” any louder?) but really it comes over as more space rock, seems to be another instrumental, with ethereal keyboards sort of reminiscent of ELO's “El Dorado”, then weird little guitar effects and audio tracks, with a lovely little guitar solo that then gets harder and more urgent, as piano keeps the counterpoint, and it ends as it began, on spacey synth and wind and choral effects.
That takes us into “The sulfur highways of Io”, opening with a really slick little bass solo and then chunky guitar with nice synth backing and measured drumming. Really nice piece of proggy swirly keyboard work then, a breakout guitar solo and as we're now halfway I'll have to assume this is yet another instrumental, which is all very fine, but I'm finding it hard to follow the plot, the concept as it were. And now, nearly three minutes in and taking me quite by surprise, here's Luke singing again, and again I'm having a little trouble making out what he's saying, though I think it may be double-tracking or something that's responsible. Not to say I
can't understand what he's singing, just that it's difficult. This part of the track takes us firmly back into Pink Floyd territory, which while always welcome is a little disheartening, as I believed GF were just beginning to establish their own sound.
Well, “Untrodden ways” goes all medieval, with whistle opening and acoustic guitar, then Luke sings in a far different voice, not the falsetto he's been using up to now, and I have to say it's easier to hear what he's singing now. Elements of Tull and Zep in this, nice change of pace, close enough to being the ballad on the album perhaps. Flute accompaniment is nice, and I'm not normally a flute guy! Good deep backing vocals, or choral vocals on a synth perhaps.
Suddenly then an electric guitar attacks like a woodcutter kicking in Granny's door, and the drums pound as the song turns into something very much
not a ballad! Interesting: it's always good to be surprised, for something different to happen and send you off on a tangent musically. Stops very abruptly though and we're back into keyboard noodling for the title track, some very exquisite piano and powerful organ (more Floyd I'm afraid in the organ, but that soon disappears as the track goes all Marillion on the keys), and then good hard guitar work cutting in. There's a spoken vocal then over the music which seems like a narration, and (again, sorry for the comparisons, but they're very clear) sounds like Rush's “The necromancer”. Back to Floyd then with Luke's vocal, and then back and forth between the singing and the narration. Nice melody and nice tone indeed. Probably the best track so far.
This brings us to “The council of Anderson”, which had a nice guitar opening, with acoustic and electric, and maybe mandolin as well? Good heavy keyboard sound, light percussion for now then it gets heavier and more pronounced as the vocal comes in, and without the double-tracking (or whatever) Luke sounds a lot better. Great jangly atmospheric guitar work from Dean, a nice half-ballad it would appear. Halfway through it kicks up a gear and speeds up, dragging in more Alex Lifeson-style guitar. Damn, I wish I could give these guys the credit they deserve, but they're so derivative at times it's hard to, well, not to take them seriously, but to take them on their own merits. Which is not to say they're not good musicians --- they are, but I just would rather they followed their own path than retreading ways others have already travelled.
The album ends on “Assorted lunatics”, a nice atmospheric ballad with some great vocals and some mesmerising guitar. Oh no! They even used the laughter at the end of the track, a la “Brain damage”! See, this is what I mean: this album is virtually a cobbling together of not only influences and styles of other bands, but almost slices of their work. It's hard to see it as a new, vibrant, hopeful work when there's so much not ripped off from, but taken from other prog rock bands.
And I found it impossible to follow the storyline. Again. Guess it must just be me.
I like this album, but I do find it hard to reconcile with how so many people have hailed it as one of the best discs/prog rock discs of 2011. I find it terribly derivative, almost a copy in some ways of parts of “Dark side of the moon”, in fact I'd possibly (if I were a cruel man) call it “A caress of dark side of the 2112” or something: there's just too much in it I recognise from other albums/artistes. Maybe that's just me but I tend to call them as I see them. Reading about this album I was really looking forward to something totally innovative and new, while retaining the old prog sensibilites, but what I seem to have found is a band who want to be Floyd with some Rush, Genesis and Marillion thrown in. Nothing wrong with that, but I think it's important to carve your own persona on your music, and I really don't feel that Gandalf's Fist have done that.
TRACKLISTING
1. No place cyclone
2. Emerald eyes
3. Conjurer of cheap tricks
4. Into the dark (containing “Emerald eyes reprise”)
5. Twilight at the gates of the prism moon
6. The sulfur highways of Io
7. Untrodden ways
8. Road to darkness
9. The council of Anderson
10. Assorted lunatics