By Jim Rowland
Since originally forming in 1979, Marillion have never stopped – no hiatuses, no splits (apart from the singer) and reformations, they just keep forging ahead, and in doing so have become one of the most successful and enduring progressive rocks bands with one of the most dedicated and fanatical of followings. 2016’s critically acclaimed, chart-topping and altogether rather dark album ‘F*** Everyone And Run (F E A R)’, was a big success. Now they’re finally back with the follow up, the rather more upbeat (musically at least) ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’, which is studio album number 20.
Like its predecessor, ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, which also provided the perfect backdrop for the carefully chosen selection of behind-the-scenes footage in form of a documentary on the making of the album and a performance of ‘Murder Machines’ from Real World that will be released together with the album. The album comprises six tracks (the seventh, ‘Only A Kiss’, is a short intro to ‘Murder Machines’) that display many of the classic Marillion traits you would come to expect, whilst still forging ahead into a few new territories.
Opener ‘Be Hard On Yourself’ will be familiar to fans who saw them preview it on the recent ‘Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ tour, and a powerful opener it is too – an epic sounding nine and a half minute piece with an upbeat feel, and a soaring, uplifting vocal performance from Steve Hogarth, whilst the slightly shorter ‘Reprogram the Gene’ is an impressive up tempo track with a more straight forward rock approach. ‘Murder Machines’ is a real highlight which maintains the more straight forward approach, is quite succinct, and has “single” (if they still do those) written all over it, and indeed has gained quite heavy rotation on commercial rock radio stations recently. It’s also one of the tracks that has some particularly poignant lyrics that touch on the covid pandemic which has obviously been very hard to ignore for a songwriter such as Hogarth, who is strong on social commentary. ‘The Crow And The Nightingale’ changes the mood with its delicate, atmospheric and quite beautiful approach, with some superb Steve Rothery guitar work.
The final two tracks are the lengthy, more prog contributions to the album, clocking in at 25 minutes between them. ‘Sierra Leone’ is once again quite delicate and subtle, and whilst not bad by any means, for me is possibly the album’s weakest link, meandering, pleasant, but not quite hitting the heights of the rest of the album. By contrast the fifteen minute ‘Care’, which closes the album, is another epic highlight and a modern Marillion classic. Kicking off with some seriously funky bass work from Pete Trewavas, ‘Care’ takes the listener on a lengthy journey of different soundscapes and moods, and once again has some particularly poignant lyrical themes and more outstanding and distinctive guitar work from Steve Rothery.
‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ is a hugely impressive album, even by Marillion’s high standards, and looks set to eclipse the success of its predecessor. This is a band still very much on top form.
- ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ is released on Friday (4 March). You can get your copy HERE.
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