Subtitled "An epic tale in music,"
Medwyn Goodall's
Chronicles comes complete with a helpful tale, written by
Goodall himself, that explains the album's basic premise. See, there's this mystical land called Kaldorn, where all is in perfect celestial harmony and has been for 1,000 years, until the land is destroyed and these dudes called the Circle of Three have to travel for ages in search of the Immortals, the sorcerers who created the land of Kaldorn in the first place, encountering the vicious bloodthirsty Orcs and this evil troll named Gollum who...sorry, wrong epic tale. Basically, the story -- along with the Roger Dean-style colorful airbrushed paintings that decorate the handsome booklet -- is strictly for the Dungeons & Dragons set. As a musical artifact, however,
Chronicles is much better than many similar pieces of semi-new age program music; in fact, it's rather better than most of
Goodall's own previous releases, with much less of a tendency toward seemingly aimless noodling and some actual dramatic tension introduced through the use of repeated themes and a canny mix of synthesized and orchestral textures. Certainly,
Chronicles is not for anyone who sneers at
Rick Wakeman's '70s solo albums, but it's much better than some might expect. ~ Stewart Mason