It’s hard to
believe that British Melodic Hard Rock act TEN have been treading the boards
for 22 years now.
Having gone
through various line up changes through the years they are about to release
their 13th studio album ‘Gothica’ on 7th July, and the third with current line
up Gary Hughes (vocals, BGV, Guitar, bass and programming ), Dann Rosingana
(Guitar), Steve Grocott (Guitar), John Halliwell (Guitar), Steve McKenna
(Bass), Darrel Treece-Birch (Keyboards and a helluva name) and Max Yates
(Drums) with additional vocals coming from Karen Fell.
Dennis Ward
joins Hughes on the mixing and mastering duties with Hughes promising, as it’s
their 13th album, something a bit more sinister than on their previous output
whilst still holding true to the traditional traits of a TEN album.
He promises to
embrace history, romance and erotic horror and in part has done this by using
an original piece of artwork for the cover by Stan W. Decker which shows a
beautiful enchantress reading incantations from a book whilst summoning shadowy
characters from its pages mirroring what Hughes is trying to do with the
characters on the albums’ songs. All very “Arty” but will listeners take this
on board?
We don’t have to
wait long as track one ‘The Grail’ is an eight minute opener based on King
Arthur’s Crusaders quest to find the Holy Grail. With sweeping heavier guitar
riffs , big hooks, monk like chanting on the choruses and Hughes story telling
vocal delivery you are instantly transported back to that time. The stunning
guitar work on this opener is a trait which runs throughout the album (hard not
to think of Monty Python though if you’re a certain age though).
‘Jekyll and
Hyde’ is a darker themed song but with quite a heavy riff throughout, a bit
more up tempo and catchy sound to it with some nice guitar pieces it ends with
a simple piano outro which is in stark contrast to the overall feel of the
song. The guitar work is slightly reminiscent of Zakk Wylde’s playing during
his time with Ozzy Osbourne..
Third song ‘Travellers’
starts with the chiming of a grandfather clock followed by a beautiful
underlying keyboard intro which continues nicely in the background throughout
the song and again has a great hard rock soaring guitar sound. Hughes’ vocal
delivery is very poetic and the guitar solos majestic and melodic. Beautifully
written piece of AOR.
‘A Man For All
seasons’ is another piece of historical lyric writing. Starting with a medieval
composition the guitars suddenly kick into action, with some great runs and
fills throughout accompanied by equally accomplished keyboards and rhythmic
rhythm section with the soloing again coming to the fore. This is a clever
piece of writing about the Tudor ascension to the throne, the reformation of
the Church and Henry VIII’s eventual mental deterioration. A piece of history
all told in seven minutes!
Track five ‘In
My Dreams’ is a more commercial, radio friendly song but with quite a heavy
opening riff. A song about a shy, geeky young man’s fantasies of finding that
perfect girl, his real life imperfections meaning they only meet in his dreams.
A song a lot of angst ridden teenagers will relate to
(and some older ones too). The solo is sublime to say the least.
‘The Wild King
of Winter’ has a slow mournful start featuring keyboards and guitar before a fast paced heavy riff, that goes on
through the whole song, turns it into a really modern rock song with some nice
Prog rock keyboards. Tortured lyrics about love are the theme and again the
solos are fantastic, being heavy and melodic at the same time.
‘Paragon’ was
the first release from the album and is a bit of a grower to be honest. A
simple piano and keyboard opening and a nice guitar riff basically makes it a
ballad with the subject matter about fantasies and eroticism as Hughes had
promised. It’s not quite up to what came before it but the melodic guitar solos
adds something to it which lifts it and stops it from becoming a bit of an
album filler.
‘Welcome To The
Freak Show’ continues the erotica theme and is dark, sexy and mature. Starting
with a fairground music intro the guitar work soon lifts the song into a nice
mid to up tempo number which includes Hughes’ description of a girl who sounds
well worth meeting!
Penultimate
track ‘La Luna Dra-Cu-La’ has a cracking opening riff with a strong Celtic feel
to it. The drumming is excellent employing a bit of bodhram drum in parts. The
lyrics are as dark as the title would suggest. It has a great rhythm to it with
the Celtic feel taking full effect about three mins in sounding like Gary Moore
in his prime. There is a great guitar battle solo and Hughes’ delivery is again
spot on. This will more than likely become an album favourite.
Final song ‘Into
Darkness’ starts with an old school cinema reel rolling before a nice keyboard
and bass line kicks in. This is a slow melodic song to end the album with and
there is yet another nice guitar solo in a song berating the movie industry (of
old maybe) and how young starlets got swallowed up by an unforgiving industry.
A great heavy riff is thrown in at the death for good measure.
Overall this is
a wonderfully written, performed nad produced album. Poetic, intelligent and
informational. A must have for all TEN fans.
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