A FOREST OF FEY

Well, here it is: the newest release from Gandalf's Fist. I discovered them between their "Road to Darkness" and "From a Point of Existence" phase, and was hooked immidiately by their enormous Pink Floyd influenced sound (see "Emerald Eyes" and compare it with "Echoes" or "Breathe in the Air"). Anyway, this is their fifth Album, and I did not think they could top the predecessor "A Day in the Life of a Universal Wanderer" at all - boy, was I wrong!

"A Forest of Fey" takes us into a magical forest, where lots of strange creatures dwell. We accompany a young girl, who strolled off the path and got lost, her mother(?) yelling after her in panic. She wanders through the forest and meets some of those creatures within, at several strange places (a circus, a tournament which turn into a battlefield). She somehow manages to actually win that tournament, which would allow her to leave that forest - but her benevolence offers the jester (who got severely wounded during the tournament) to return to his "Forest Rose", leaving her in the forest forever (it seems).

Musically, we have lots of Folk-Rock and Space-Rock in there - not so much Pink Floyd as in recent releases, but some Jethro Tull, some medieval stuff (Gryphon, Pentangle), a bit of Steeleye Span and (to my surprise) galloping triplets a la Iron Maiden (and some very Maiden-like Vocals in the end). What a mixture.

Go and get it. If you're into concept albums, you're really in for a treat here...