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In the early Eighties Marillion re-animed the progrock
scene with their EP Market Square Heroes/Grendel (1982) and
their first LP A Script For A Jester’s Tear (1983). I was
delighted and soon after we could buy albums by IQ, Twelfth
Night and ... Pendragon. In 1984 I bought Pendragon their
maxi-single Flying High, Fall Far, one year later their first
LP entitled The Jewel and the band even turned out to be the
support-act for neo-prog giant Marillion on their Misplaced
Childhood tour, I still caress the pictures I made during
that double-progrock-bill! And now, almost 25 years later,
Pendragon has released their 8th studio-album, does it sound
as fresh and adventurous as their previous effort Believe?
- Well, during the first composition Indigo (more than 13
minutes) I got excited about the slow rhythms with bombastic
atmospheres (the Pendragon trademark) and the excellent guitarwork:
first rock and roll riffs, then fiery and howling runs, twanging
acoustic guitar and in the end a strongly build-up, very compelling
guitarsolo, accompanied by lush keyboards, this is Pendragon
in its full splendor! In the next five songs I notice that
Pendragon delivers both typical Pendragon songs as very surprising
tracks like "Comatose - I View From The Seashore"
– (featuring prog metal guitar riffs and flute-Mellotron),
The Freak Show (first and final part sounds like Immigrant
song by Led Zeppelin) and the final song It's Only Me with
mouth-organ, cello and again Mellotron in the wonderful grand
finale delivering a nother compelling guitar solo, goose bumps!
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On this new album I notice very powerful drumming by
new member Scott Hingham, special attention for the recording
with lots of sound effects and a blend of typical Pendragon
and a more experimental Pendragon. After all those years this
band is still alive and neo-progging!
www.progwalhalla.com
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