GANDALF’S FIST
Decennium GANDALFSFIST.COM
Prog traditionalists look back over their first 10 years.
Gandalf’s Fist prime movers Dean Marsh and Luke Severn celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their band’s first album with this compilation of remastered tracks that spans their career to date. The pair have stated Decennium is not intended to be a ‘Greatest Hits’, but rather to capture the feel and flow of a concert setlist.
The album opens with Shadowborn, from 2016’s The Clockwork Fable, which does a fine job of setting out their stall. With a clear penchant for concept albums and sagas, the music favours a steady, careful mid-tempo range that allows the vocalists to get all the story beats across and lyrically speaking, Gandalf’s Fist are nothing if not verbose. There’s everything here from a reinterpretation of The Wizard Of Oz to science fiction, fantasy and steampunk.
Victims Of The Light adds a little folk to their neo-prog, and it wouldn’t be a proper folk tale if it didn’t begin with the words, ‘Come gather round…’.
Into The Dark feels like they’re going for a Dark Side Of The Moon vibe, with the Gilmour-esque vocals and slightly downbeat mood, although the dual guitar harmonies are more in keeping with Thin Lizzy than Pink Floyd.
There’s a new recording of Monolith from the forthcoming special edition of 2012’s From A Point Of Existence, although that’s one of the weaker entries here. Marsh’s vocals sound like his pushing at his limits with a slightly shrill performance that doesn’t sit comfortably in the mix. Stronger is Keri Farish’s delivery of The Clokkemaker, although there’s that midtempo again, and the Dickensian melancholy of 2017’s gloomy Christmas song Winter’s Mourning.
The final and oldest track is The Master And The Monkey Part 1, from GF’s debut album in 2011. Severn and Marsh have been critical of their own production on this one, but the remaster lends it some welly, fattening up the low-end and the drums. It’s that attention to detail in brushing up the back catalogue that should draw the faithful to Decennium.