Top 10 Songs From Gandalf's Fist's The Clockwork Fable
The Clockwork Fable is the sixth regular studio album by the English neo-progressive rock band Gandalf's Fist. Released in 2016, it is a three-disc rock-opera mixed with a radio play between the actual songs. Each disc of the album serves as an individual element of a three-act structure.This is one of the longest albums I've listened to, spanning a total 33 songs/acts lasting a total 3 hours, and conveying a wonderful story throughout the entire thing. It's the perfect equivalent to a giant original play. For this list I will not be looking at the radio acts in the album, although they're worth as much a listen as the songs.
Also, I will eventually release a three-part analysis of the album, so if you want to understand it better, you can read it when I publish it.
Now let's take a look at this amazing concept album.
At the Sign of the Aperture is an amazing and heavy-hitting tune. The vocal work Blaze Bayley here convey an amazing emotion in this tune, and are accompanied with adventurous musicianship between every single band member. The instrumental break is also one that will draw you in through the entire time. Overall, this song really shows how much emotion was put into this album.
This song is divided into 9 parts, each part adding another part of the story to this album. It's a grand combination of emotional lyricism, heavy instrumentals, crossovers of futuristic and folk sounds, and a continuous theme that we see throughout the entire album.
The Lamplighter is separated into...25 different parts. Hey, that's prog for you. These first 8 parts are definitely my favorite, as they have great transition from beautifully emotional to intensely epic. The multi-instrumental work of Dean Marsh is expressed at its best, especially with the soft piano and guitar solos.
This is a great representation of modern elements and folk music coming together. The transition between pipe organ and synthesizer blend surprisingly well together. If you're able to make that sound good, lemme tell you that's the sign of a great musician. Not to forget the epic acoustic guitar solo.
The opening to this song is an oddly dark one, and really shows the reminiscence of the best crossover prog groups before Gandalf's Fist. The combination of instrumental lineups in this song is one of the more interesting of the album, as we're treated to the combos of acoustic guitar, flute, and saxophone. Add the reverberating vocal work of Dean Marsh and Dave Oberlé and you're treated to true excellence in modern prog.
This is definitely one of the more odd-sounding songs, yet is still beautifully dark in its organization. The high-noted vocals I presume are performed by Melissa Hollick are one of my favorite parts of this song. They're almost angelic in a way. Add on to that the dark overtone accompanying the vocals of Luke Severn and Arjen Lucassen and you have one powerfully odd song.
Holy damn! That's one intense opening! Anyways, this song definitely has elements of it that are more spacey/symphonic than other songs. The vocals in the middle of the song are amazing, and they remind me of the vocals of Jakko Jakszyk (King Crimson, The Tangent). Not to mention the grand harmonic section of the song.
The final song of the album, this one may be only 3 minutes long, but it's harmonically beautiful and is sure to bring one to tears. I think it's very appropriate to have such a song finish off the story this album tells. Melissa Hollick is a great singer.
There's no doubt in my mind Ditchwater Daisies has some of the best combinations of acoustic guitar and pipe organ overlaying each other. Heck, the acoustic guitar on its own really stands out for me. In an overall viewpoint, this song is one of the more emotional of the album, likely due to its darker theme than the others. Marsh's vocals in this song are particularly great. Especially when harmonized with Hollick.
These instrumentals are truly out of this world! I'm astounded how well balanced everything is here. And the combination of keyboard sounds here jut adds to the greatness. I'm not even sure what else to say, considering this song is shorter than most of the others on this list but...it's definitely a great cog�"I mean song.