Great. Balls. Of. Fire. What an absolutely cracking album. Whilst members of the progarchive community may recognise that Gandalf's Fist has hastily became one of my top 2 favourite bands, I should make a quick note that this album surpasses all expectations I had for the little Cumbrian duo and is an essencial piece of work that would fit handsomely and impressively into any prog lovers music collection. It is adventurous and diverse with lots of cheeky motifs one does not expect to come flying out of the laptop speakers, through the pantry, and into the sitting room whilst one is nonchalantly eating muesli - this is an epic and should be treated as such! The introductory track made my organs feel a bit unsettled, but in a good way...the anticipation in this short sequence is incredible and opens for the marathon monster 15 minute + title track that makes even an M.D like me feel inferior to these two musical warriors. My favourite track (today at least) is 'There and Back Again', an obvious homage to Tolkien with a bit of an 80s ballad vibe - a great departure from GF's usual style but with excellent results! The simplicity brings the album back to earth in contrast with the complexity and mind-melting quality of some of the other tracks, showing the duo are not just your usual prog privateers, but instead are capable of bringing much more to the feast, in the form of a sprinkling of metal, a dash of psychedelic rock and a thin slice of cheese.
Equally impressive is the standard of complementary artwork for this album. GF's page narrates in some manner about some space age conspiracy story about an Ice cream man named William Small; the hallucinogenic ice cream and disgruntled robin takes me back to the day when music and art didn't have to make sense or have an 'agenda'... it just had to smell and taste like tangerines.
For those suffering from confusion over what constitutes as music nowadays, Dr Ball prescribes the PURCHASING of this album and 18 hours in the bath listening to it on loop, whilst pretending you are a giant and vicious sea worm breaking the balls of musical pirates.
Dr Ball | 5/5 |
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Source: http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=841770
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