FETISH

And here we have another example of extraordinary songwriting skills - again involved is Marek Arnold, a real allrounder when it comes to a progressive rock trademark in Germany. That means, whilst also being a cross-genre musician and studio engineer, he definitely has more than one horse in the race overall. And this with great success, just taking the last Toxic Smile album '7' into account, which appeared like a bombshell in 2013. The albums he participates are stylistically hard to pigeonhole in general, and this new SEVEN STEPS TO THE GREEN DOOR production does not make an exception from the rule.

While continuing to take a look at the comprehensive line up, not having heard one bit, it seems to be quite obvious that vocals are playing an exceptional role. This maybe akin to another german outfit called Frequency Drift due to a rather musical thrilled vocal style. Just sticking to the other main collaborators furthermore, drummer Ulf Reinhardt is part of the show once more, where Martin Schnella seems to be new when serving the basic electric guitar work. Amongst many others Arno Menses, Steve Unruh and Daniel Mash are guesting, other wellknown contributors to the prog realm.

The short opener Possible Delayed is meant to be ... eh, what? Okay, let's say the album's vocal prototype, or warm-up maybe, but if you will listen right on 'til the end - I bet you will, sooner or later - then a deja vu is coming up attached to the epic Ordinary Maniac, which can be crowned as the album's culmination point with good reason. Porn! is an example gracefully pointing to an eclectic flavour, quite irresistible, trickiness is the name of the game. This without running into something overloaded or overplayed, as there are also a lot of accessible and highly melodic moments to find on this album.

Still Searching is quite a good example for that, although - attention - also provided with a puzzling vocal acrobatic intermezzo. Well, some few are slipping into german accent here (with intent???). And I'm inclined to hear greetings to Freddy Mercury in between. 'Fetish' is a definitely unique production, a rich source for progressive art rock fans. Additionally the cover art perfectly mirrors the inspiration behind the concept. Although I'm actually more fond of Marek's Toxic Smile involvement this is a very prolific workout - a contender for a TOP 2015 list.