THE CLOCKWORK FABLE

Whoa! That could sum up the overall reaction I had after listening to "The Clockwork fable" for the first time. Since the band teased some bits and pieces from the musical side of the album on their website (in form of a 10 minute medley), I somehow thought I knew what to expect, but the final result really overtops the medley by far. I don't even know where to begin...

The story (whose background is expertly shared on the extra website (clockworkfable.com) with really astounding graphics and effects on it) is carried forward by some expertly written and "acted" radio-play bits which remind me of "War of the Worlds" from back in the days. Recorded with the help of some really famous actors, like Mark Benton, Tim Munro, Bill Fellows, Paul Kavanagh, Paul Barnhill, Zach Galligan (Billie Peltzer in Gremlins), with the bandmembers filling the ranks. Those sections really drag you deep into the story, and makes you wonder what happens next in this crazed world of Cogtopolis.

These radio-play sections are separated to the songs by putting them on extra tracks, you can - if you ever have enough of the dialogues in future spins of this album - just put all songs on a playlist (every even tracknumber is a song) and still have about 2 hours of excellent music.

On the music side, you get really long epics, which - astonishingly (see what I did there?) never get boring. The first Lamplighter part moves so smoothly, you really don't notice that you actually listened to 8 minutes of great music the first time you're looking at the duration bar. Plus, I somehow begin to whistle melodies from the songs at various places when I'm NOT actually listening to it, and I wonder where I heard those melodies. That really speaks volumes in my books...

I'd say CD 2 (or Act II, as they call it) is my favourite, because there you have a perfect mixture of Progressive Rock, Folk and a tad of metal on a harder edge or two. Every CD (or Act) has a certain "feel" to it, or a musical style it leans towards, with the last CD being the "hardest" (in lack of better words for it) style. Lots of Iron Maiden influences to be found there, but not copied at all, no - some of the songs sound as if someone discovered a long-lost Maiden album in the attic. Influenced by Maiden? Yes. Just copying? No way! It still is Gandalf's Fist, and it is their finest work so far.

After several spins, I give this one a 5 stars rating, because as of now, it can't really get any better than this. This is Gandalf's Fist at their peak. I wonder if they can top that... but until their next release, there's a lot of music to digest on this one first, with a very well deserved highest rating possible.