A question that is often asked of music fans is if there was one moment in time you could go back to; to either relive or experience for the first time, what part of musical history would you wish to visit. For this reviewer, little thought is required; for me I’d want to be in London in 1966/67, around clubs like the U.F.O. club to experience the birth of psychedelic progressive rock music. A time when bands that you can only see, if at all, these days in monolithic arenas or stadiums were playing smoky and tiny performance spaces, filling those places with weird, wonderful and trippy sounds and light shows. The thought of seeing Pink Floyd or King Crimson with a small number of similarly spaced out voyagers of perceptive and far out rock music fills me with a desire that is as delicious as it is unobtainable.

Lucky for us, though, is the fact there are bands out there who not only create music that die hard Floydian’s and Crimson King courtiers will enjoy but whom also perform live experiences in clubs that are reminiscent of those legendry 1960’s establishments. At the head of that movement is the four piece band, The Fierce And The Dead, who are following up their triumphant 2018 album release, The Euphoric, with a live album recorded in the USA in 2017, to be launched by Bad Elephant Music on the 4th October.

This album, recorded in Gettysburg PA at the famous RoSFest progressive music festival, showcases TFATD’s stellar back catalogue plus two tracks, 1991 and Truck, that appeared on The Euphoric album. This is a 9 song set list of high energy, raucous riffing and melodic playing that confounds and delights in equal measure. Played with the speed of Slayer or Nuclear Assault but with the subtlety that a David Gilmour or Robert Fripp brings to their live performances TFATD have managed to bring a historical review of their music to an enraptured and enthralled crowd that adds majesty to this live recording.

Indeed, TFATD have achieved something very few bands are able to. Not only hugely proficient in their search for perfection in the studio they also succeed in bringing that complex mix to a live experience losing none of the virtuoso qualities the guys in the band possess. This is heavy, melodic and thoughtful music performed with energy and talent. This is a live album that will transport you to a stoner world of psychedelic wonderment. All that remains to say is that if someone can invent that time machine to take me back to 1966, please can I take The Fierce And The Dead back with me; they’ll go down an absolute storm in the UFO.

To pre-order the album visit https://tfatd.bandcamp.com