A FEAST OF CONSEQUENCES

Review #10 I am one of thousands who are following Fish's career after his departure from Marillion. I am also one of those who were hoping that at some point Marillion and Fish will unite their forces again. Well, not any more! All of us must accept the fact that Fish left his past with Marillion for good (and/or vice versa), and he is continuing his career as a solo artist.

After the terrible news of the throat surgeries and cancer rumous which were spread, I feared the worst. (And I was not the only one). But all of these stories are a thing of the past now since Fish is here once more, with a new album, and actually a good one.

After leaving Marillion in the late '80's all of us (the Marillion fans) left wondering what's gonna happen next. Luckily, almost a year later we had two good albums to choose from. Marillion's 'Season's End', and Fish's 'Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirror'. It was the best start for both Marillion and Fish, but as it turned out it was just a good spark which never became a fire...

Fish's career was going downhill, with every new album being a little bit worse than the previous one. But fortunately there was a turning point. And the turning point was the collaboration with Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, Blackfield etc) in the album 'Sunsets on Empire' in 1997. This album was Fish's first really good album after 'Vigil'. Two years later Fish released another good album, (Raingods with Zippos - 1999) again with Steven Wilson being present, but this time with less responsibilities. Two more albums followed before '13th Star', and at the point which everybody believed Fish is regaining his old self, we learned the news of the throat surgeries and the fear of cancer.

The good thing with Fish is that he is inspired from his personal tragedies (and he has some), and he comes back every time even stronger! So, after the problems with his health and his divorce as well, he returned with this album, which is one of his best works in my opinion.

The album itself can't be characterized as the "definition of Progressive Rock", but it has many good moments, including a 5-piece epic, starting with the wonderfull 'High Wood' (track 5) and ending with 'The Leaving' (track 9). In these songs Fish remembers his "Prog roots" and he does it well!

Further than that, we have a very decent album, with Fish describing many of his personal moments which are "dressed" with beautiful melodies.

The album includes 11 songs, and has a total running time of almost 67 minutes. It's highly recommened of all the fans of Marillion's early days, and to all those who can enjoy a beautiful melodic album, filled with personal stories and/or nightmares... My Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5.00.