Trollheart

Time to get this thing organised in an, um, organised way. Last time I just dove in to my record collection, this time I want to make it, oh what’s that word again? Oh yeah. Organised. So here’s what I’m a-gonna do. Going alphabetically through my collection I’ll stop at each prog arist (cos, you know, I have other music too) and if I haven’t heard anything/all by them I’ll choose one album, see what it’s like and move on.

If you dare then,

So let’s see where our journey takes us first.
Just watch out for the sentinels! Don’t worry: we’re safe inside this craft.

Okay, so that’s A Flock of Seagulls. They’re not prog. No, no they’re not, let’s move on.

A Forest of Stars? Post-rock, my son.

What’s this coming up on the right? Ah, yes. A Sound of Thunder. Great band, but not prog in any way, shape or form.

Ah, here we go! First stop. Do NOT exit the shuttle. Remember those guardians?. What? Oh yeah. Sentinels. Whatever. You don’t want to go messing with them. Help yourself to industry grade headphones, grab a beer and put your feet up while we check these guys out.


Artist: A.C.T
Nationality: Swedish
Sub-genre: Eclectic Prog
Formed: 1994
Number of albums: 5
Owned by me: 5
Listened to: 1
Album selected: Last Epic
Position in discography: 3rd

Comments: Starts out very orchestral, very short intro and then into an uptempo keyboard-driven “Wailings From a Building”, courtesy of Jerry Sahlin, great hook and I like the vocal harmonies. Is that a female singer? No. No it isn’t, Herman Saming is definitely male but his voice certainly sounds a little feminine. Interestingly, despite the album title there are in fact no epics on this album, in fact the longest track is a mere six minutes. Quite a sense of both Queen and ELO here, touches of It Bites too. I very much like this, and we’re only on track one. Not including the intro. “Mr.Landlord” has a lot of Saga about it, kind of a carnival atmosphere to it. The It Bites comparisons keep coming. More string arrangements for a moment before we head into another uptempo and upbeat track on “Torn By a Phrase”, dropping back to a simple acoustic guitar from Ola Andersson for the verse before taking off on swirling keys for the choruses. Very much a sense of Manfred Mann’s “Davy’s On the Road Again” in the melody.

Absolutely gorgeous combination of violin, cello and vocoder (!) makes “Ted’s Ballad” something very special, driven on soft piano with some fine ELO-style backing vocals, then other than the intro and the outro the shortest track is “Dance of Mr. Gumble”, which allows the guitarist to really have his head and go wild, some fine orchestral hits helping the melody out here, and I assume given the fact that it runs for barely over two minutes it’s an instrumental. Yes it is. “Wake Up” has an almost reggae feel to it, strutting along arrogantly, then turns into a sort of Beatles pastiche. Again some sumptuous violin and cello is added here. The tempo remains high but returns to a more rocky, slightly harder tone with the longest track, “Manipulator”, showcasing another fine hook in the chorus, that carnival sound coming back in about halfway, while “A Loaded Situation” brings a more dramatic feel to the album, with grinding guitar and a very Yes-style keyboard run from Sahlin, who also handles the strings arrangements and vocoder, the latter put to good use here in what I feel may be another instrumental.

And so it is, and on we go into “The Observer”, strident piano driving the tune along, Anderson’s powerful guitar riffs adding their voice too - though here the melody seems a little fractured and confused for me, hard to follow. Vocoder in a very ELO style takes us into the far superior “The Cause” with the welcome return of the hook and an almost ABBA feel to it (not kidding) while “The Effect” seems to more or less maintain the same basic melody, lots of orchestral strings here, mostly cello I think, guest female vocals from Sara Svensson and we end (more or less) on “The Summary” which bops along with almost a new-wave idea allied to the most lush keyboard lines, bouncing guitar and a lovely slow section in the middle which gives both the orchestra and the backing vocalists a chance to shine once more, and then the outro bookends the album, one minute of cello violin and viola but with added vocal harmonies. Superb.

Track Listing and Ratings*

1. Intro (7)
2. Wailings From A Building (9)
3. Mr. Landlord (9)
4. Torn By A Phrase (8)
5. Ted's Ballad (10)
6. Dance Of Mr. Gumble (8)
7. Wake Up (8)
8. Manipulator (8)
9. A Loaded Situation (7)
10. The Observer (6)
11. The Cause (8)
12. The Effect (7)
13. Summary (9)
14. Outro (10)

* I’ll be rating each track on a scale from 1 to 10

What did I like about this album? Absolutely everything. Many prog bands tend to be very stiff, serious, up themselves about their music. A.C.T. are different; they have fun playing their music, and while it may not be the case that all their lyrics are upbeat (I haven’t looked into the lyrics) they certainly come across that way. All musicians are top notch here, singer is great and the usage of orchestra and vocoder really adds to the compositions, but is not overused or pushed in your face too much. Again, breaking with the majority of prog bands (though in fairness they are described as eclectic prog) there are no really long songs here, no suites or anything. Nothing overstays its welcome, and the album is well bookended by the intro and outro.

What did I not like about this album? Hardly anything. The only track I was a little lukewarm on was “The Observer”, but I liked even that. Otherwise, nothing to complain about.

Will I be listening to more? Hell yes.

Album rating
(Here I’m going to use an old system I used to employ, showing a speedometer. The “faster” the speedometer goes, the better the album. I have no hesitation in awarding this the highest rating right out of the box).

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018