FISH (Marillion) – A Feast Of Consequences (2013)
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Derek William Dick or simply FISH always will be ‘the vocalist’ of Marillion. Although Hogarth is great, he was the singer when we all fell in love with Marillion. Since Fish left the band for a solo career I was not too much hooked with his music.
Well, things have changed with his fresh new album “A Feast Of Consequences” to be released soon (it has been delayed due CD print troubles). Let me tell you from the start that this new recording it’s the best FISH album ever.
In short, “A Feast Af Consequences” is a fabulous record on all aspects.
The accent on old fashioned songwriting, the pristine musicianship, the crystal clear production – and, fundamentally – Fish in top from vocally (he has suffered some problems lately) makes this album a pure delight, not only for Marillion fans, but for all quality Rock listeners in general.
I can easily write a track-by-track description of all the material included here, as all, I mean ALL, are favorites and highlights.
But to keep it short, the proof is in the pudding on “High Wood Suite” which includes 5 awesome parts where the rockier side of Fish takes over interspersed with calmer, elegant passages of stylized primal Marillion sounds.
Particularly the way “Crucifix Corner” builds its intensity and the progressions of the uptempo yet acoustic based “The Gathering” are supreme. By the time the song ends we are over seventeen minutes into the suite, but as a listener you remained gripped until the end.
I’m in love with “A Feast Of Consequences”. Forget the ‘prog’ tag, this is classic rock in a wider sense of the term, traveling through various musical paths with an incredible cohesion and quality.
Despite his much publicised vocal problems of the recent past Fish is on fine form vocally throughout. It’s true that he doesn’t have the power or the upper register from his early days, but with songs arranged to fit his current range he’s still a very evocative singer. Lyrically this is a quite poetic album, Fish truly deserves more recognition from the rock world as one of British music’s finest lyricists.
The exquisite production by Calum Malcolm captures the sort of intensity and energy levels more often associated with the best live albums. Robin Boult in particular plays some great, straight sounding guitar; not that much in the way of showboating solos but some powerful riffs and rhythm parts. Guests Liz Antwi and Aidan O’Rourke both leave strong marks.
Sadly “A Feast Of Consequences” will not be distributed through normal retail channels, and I’ve seen some troubles with the pre-order at Fish’s website. But do yourself a favour, try by all means to get a copy of this great piece of work.
Brilliant.
01 – Perfume River
02 – All Loved Up
03 – Blind To The Beautiful
04 – A Feast Of Consequences
05 – High Wood
06 – Crucifix Corner
07 – The Gathering
08 – Thistle Alley
09 – The Leaving
10 – The Other Side Of Me
11 – The Great Unravelling
Fish – vocals
Robin Boult – guitars
Foss Paterson – keyboards
Steve Vantsis – bass
Gavin Griffiths – drums, percussion
Guests:
Liz Antwi – backing vocals,
Aidan O’Rourke – violin, string and brass sections
BUY IT !
shop.fishheadsclub.com/
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I have bought every Fish release on CD (and a couple on record), so I'm very disappointed that this is not to be available at retail. The cost to get it through his website is cost prohibitive. Thanks for posting this. Fish won't get my money this time unless I can get it through Amazon or another retailer.