Trollheart

Okay guys here finally is my review. It's been a little difficult for me, as I did review this already in my journal, and while I could just copy-and-paste that into here, I didn't want to do that: felt this deserved a little more time thought and originality. So although there are some elements here, obviously, from that review, I've tried to keep it as separate from that as possible. This has not been easy, but I think I've managed to get my thoughts down here without even referring back to the original review, though I did of course have to play the album again; no ordeal, as I love this record!

Fact and fiction --- Twelfth Night --- 1982 (Twelfth Night Records)
Unlike others here who have become annoyed at Geoff Mann's soprano voice, it was something that gripped me from the beginning when I heard this album. Some backstory: I believe this was purchased in the UK (I live in Ireland) when I travelled there and walked for the very first time into the HMV Superstore, as it was, and was absolutely flattened by how BIG it was! Of course, these days with the proliferation of digital media and the decline of vinyl, even CD, it's probably gone, or at least a lot smaller, but back then it was effing HUGE! I mean, over here our record shops were more or less divided into sections for rock, pop, trad, soundtracks, classical and a few others, with maybe some tapes on the walls if there was room. But HMV had BINS and BINS dedicated to each GENRE! I mean, their Genesis section alone was massive! I could have spent hundreds, thousands had I possessed such money, and happily died there going through all the albums.

But back in the real world, I had probably two or three hundred sterling and was only there for a weekend, or a week, I don't recall which. But I remember buying albums I KNEW I could never even find in Ireland, and happily stuffing them in my bag for the trip home. This was, I believe, one of those albums you couldn't get in the emerald isle, and having read about it in (where else?) Kerrang!, which was my bible at the time, I knew it sounded good and I wanted it. I was also just entering my prog rock phase, on the back of Marillion's “Market square heroes” single and Genesis's “Duke” as well as some Rush stuff, so this was right up my street.

Backstory over: back to the album. I love the way the rising keyboard chords sound almost like a church service, then the, well, altar-boy singing of Geoff Mann comes in. I also really like the way he then switches down to, what, alto is it? The slightly lower register. Some here have postulated he did that because he couldn't maintain the high-pitched voice all through the song, and that may indeed be true, but I think it was done for dramatic effect. At any rate, I think his voice gets quite menacing as it drops, while Clive Mitten's keys maintain their celestial sound.

Then it all gets dark and dramatic, as Mann's voice goes even lower, speaking this time then the keys get into more of a melody rather than a background supporting noise and suddenly, after a few quotes of “Would you file this please Harry” and the academic treatise being read out, a voice shouts “HARRY!” and the drums, which have slid in almost unnoticed, kick the tempo up as the guitars also blast in and the song really takes over, the band revealing the tight-knit combo they are. Without going too much into the first track (see my journal for a deeper analysis) I like the way it goes into a sort of child's nursery-rhyme melody with some attendant screams and wails, almost giving the lie to the title, as it's no doubt meant to. I also love the third movement, as it were, with the robotic part running over heavy organ then the big powerful runaway solos and chanting to end with the final chilling thought ”All eyes faced upon the conductor, baton taps inside the brain”.

“Human being” reminds me of the opening of Floyd's, much later, “Signs of life”, with the splashing water, and then its frankly gorgeous keyboard intro, with a superb guitar piece from Andy Revell, and one of Twelfth Night's best lyrics in my opinion, when Mann sneers ”If every time we tell a lie, a little fairy dies, they must be building death-camps in the garden”, while “This city” is a stark, bleak song which, while it lists the horrors of urban decay, seeks not to apportion blame for these, thereby by default accepting some of the responsibility, reflected indeed in the lyric ”It is all this city”; we are all to blame. Followed as it is by one of the two excellent instrumentals on the album, the almost hopelessness of “This city” is somewhat lessened by the quite celestial “World without end” which, while short, is certainly impressive, and closes the first side (yeah, my copy is on vinyl: I also have a cassette player and a rotary phone, what of it?) extremely well.

Again, I will disagree with many here who think the title track is not up to scratch. I personally love every track on this album, and I think “Fact and fiction”, with its deceptively bouncy tempo framing a very dark and chilling message, as parties on all sides try to convince us they are right, works really well. On the live album “Live and let live”, this track is preceded by a monologue by Mann, which ends with a chorus “The truth is what we tell you! We are the fact, they are the fiction!” The way the other instrumental, “The poet sniffs a flower”, turns from slow ballad to sudden uptempo bopper originally took me by surprise, now I love the way it changes. It leads, of course, to my all-time favourite, the total standout.

I don't know Karn Evil 9, but when I heard this it was the first time I had ever heard anything so, well, so scary! I hadn't at that point heard “The Lamb”, so the most unsettling song I had experienced close to this was (don't laugh) “Hotel California” --- look, I thought it was scary, ok? When they stab the beast but can't kill it? --- so this was something new. I was terrified, but fascinated. I think Mann's voice works perfectly all through this, at times low, calm and authoritative, even detached as the guide, cracked and completely insane in the persona of Amanda, and finally a warder on the gates of sanity as he warns us “If you come again, you'd better bring your ball and chain: unguided, embittered attraction of the Creep show!” My favourite part is when he stands before the mirror. The explanation, the echoey, booming, ethereal music that swirls around him like trapped souls, trying to escape but unable to, just freezes my blood. I also love Revell's solo outro on the guitar.

And that just leaves “Love song”. After such an epic prog masterpiece, I think this is the perfect way to end the album. A simple, reassuring, acoustic-mostly ballad that begins almost inaudibly before you can hear Mann's voice, then builds quietly but strongly and almost, but not quite, ends on another superb and beautiful solo from Andy Revell, but the final word is left to Geoff Mann, with the simplest of advice: “If it seems that your hoping heart has led you into pain, take a tip from the carpenter: forgive and love again.” What more can you say to that?

The whole theme, I feel, of “Fact and fiction” is that of free will and whether or not we're prepared to use it. Tracks like “This city” and “Human being” show this, where it's made painfully clear that we can make things better if we only try, if we open our eyes and just look out and see what a damn mess we've made and begin to try to clean it up. The title track of course shows us how easily we often allow ourselves to be led, as indeed does “We are sane”, where the “controllers” rejoice in how simple it is to implant certain suggestions in a human brain and turn them into mindless, unquestioning drones. This anger that we follow like sheep is brought into sharpest relief in “Creep show”, when Mann yells “Go on! Wake up! Who's running this show anyway?” Indeed. A question that is not asked enough.

As mentioned, I heard this originally on vinyl, so the extra tracks discussed in other reviews here are songs I've not heard, and to me they don't form part of the experience of the album, at least for me, so I won't be talking about them here. Apart from that, the general policy when reviewing in my journal is that I usually don't take account of extra, bonus, additional or special tracks. It's just what I do.

One of the seminal prog or neo-prog if you prefer albums of the early eighties, I find it sad that, great as they are, Marillion more or less took all the attention from bands like Twelfth Night and Quasar, and they were left kind of in the “not only but also” bin, where they definitely never deserved to be. A great album, a stunning ensemble piece and for me, one of the most important albums of the “new progressive rock movement”.

9.5/10

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018