TIMELESS FAIRYTALE – “A story to tell” (2024)

“A story to tell” is the introduction of TIMELESS FAIRYTALE to the metal world, as we are talking about the debut of this new band. It is an international act founded by vocalist Henrik Brockmann and guitarist Luca Sellitto. The former is mostly known from his work in ROYAL HUNT during the albums “Land of broken hearts” and “Broken mirror”, but also from some guest appearances that include the band’s latest “Dystopia I” and “Dystopia II”. Luca is in the Power/Progressive band STAMINA with 4 full lengths under their belts. 

As it is hinted by the founders’ musical history, the direction of TIMELESS FAIRYTALE reminds of ROYAL HUNT first and foremost, with strong neoclassical touches, in order to form a great Melodic Prog/Power result. After a somewhat long intro, we enter a gateway to the past, as “A story to tell” is a great remembrance of all the things that made this type of music sound good back then. 

All songs share the same values, so let’s see them separately. On the vocal department, Henrik’s performance is great and very Hard Rock-y, while well placed female backing voices that are a trademark of ROYAL HUNT as well, dress the songs. They are exceptionally well done and a pass from the track ‘Master of illusion’ will persuade you. The combination of those two, assists the creation of memorable and strong choruses that are necessary for a song to be characterized as something more than good. 

Regarding the instrumentation, keyboards play a very prominent part, while drums and bass pave the way with their catchy groove. What I did not expect but was glad to be proven wrong, was the intensity of the guitars. For such a prog and melodic record, I feared that they would be smothered, but instead they are allowed to let the record feel like a proper Metal release. 

On to more details, I found only one track that missed the mark, which is the title track, I believe it is dragged out more than it should. I wanted to start with this comment, because I really have no complaints from the rest. In fact I was impressed on how the band managed to maintain the quality of each composition on high levels. As the album progressed, I was meeting one great moment after the other and was eager to see if this would last till the end, which it did!

TIMELESS FAIRYTALE accomplished no small of a feat. They crafted an album that could be placed next to the best ROYAL HUNT moments of the past and no one would notice. I am persisting in this comparison because not only are similarities strong, but because I want to point out how good this one is. Perhaps this could lead to some people believing that TF have not found a strong identity of their own, but to be honest it doesn’t matter if that is true or not. 

I had dearly missed a good melodic album of this specific musical direction, but I hadn’t noticed it until I was pleasantly surprised here. Listening to it many times in order to accumulate all it has to give, felt like listening to a record from a different time that slipped my attention before only to be discovered now. For its brilliant songwriting, for all individual ingredients that do their part, for its nostalgic aura that avoids sounding outdated, “A story to tell” deserves a place in the best releases of the year. 

90/100

Pavlos Pavlakis