ROAD TO DARKNESS

I found Gandalf's Fist on Last FM and checked them out and have to say there one of my favourite new bands on the scene, they take the classic Pink Floyd sound and give it a twist, they mix classic space prog with dark almost sabbathesk riffs and even add in elements of folk and 80's heavy metal. The album is a homage to PF and is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz story, the theme runs throughout with the Wicked Witch and the Wizard making vocal appearances. It starts with a winding spacey sound with an eerie vocal crying why! Its feels like your entering a house of horrors, this album can be listened to as individual tracks, but the whole thing flows seemlessly from one track to the next and is a joy to listen to in one go. Linking the tracks together are a series of Instrumentals with overdubbed wizard and witch spoken parts and great guitar riffs.

Stand out tracks, Emerald Eyes is probably my favourite track on the album, its the track that i first listened to from the band and it got me hooked, this track is very Floydian straight off of Dark Side of the Moon and sets out the quality of the band. Into the Dark starts like the theme of Dr Who, before slowing down into classic rock riff, the chorus is catchy as hell and you'll be singing along to "return to the sun...it's no place like home" in no time, the bridge is almost a metal riff, before returning to the chorus then reprising Emerald Eyes at the end, excellent work. Untrodden ways is really different from the rest of the album but is a great song, it starts off as folky style epitaph to a lost love, before launching into a full on pirate sing along, great fun!

To be fair theres not much I don't like on this album with, the Sabbath riff on the spoken word title track, the great narrative story of the Council of Anderson and the excellent Assorted Lunatics are all great songs and thats why I justify my 9/10 rating, its not perfect but if you want a great Prog album from a new an exciting band then look no further than here.