Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

In our rush to embrace the modern age, where we believe our lives are governed by a progress that is all knowing, where we believe we have a say in every decision made and that our lives matter to those we entrust our vote with, we have forgotten one detail to which put us, as a species, on the road to shaping the planet in our image; that of chivalry, of gallantry and the mark of respect to those who pave the way of tales of sorcery and the values and allegories of the Knight and the quest to which they are bonded.

There is a reason why stories that captured the imagination of speakers of Old and Middle English persist into the present day, there surely cannot be a person alive who has at one time or another been entranced by the exploits, the sense of duty, that persists in the chronicles of King Arthur, of Sir Gawain, of the magic of Merlin and the dread of Morgan Le Fey  and even further back in the mists of time, to that earliest translation into English of Beowulf. These tales were memory, framed by the song in which they were passed down from father to son, from mother to daughter, until they were placed on paper to be able to be read by all.

It is in the song that the memory of such things as The King & The Dragon, the knight and the idea of courtly love persist, the horrors faced, and more importantly the notion that a life is sacred to those who venture on the quest, whether it is to defend a group of people from a mythical being, or to vanquish an enemy that has vowed to destroy the peace in the land. It is to such songs that Black Country legend Mark Smith, who has worked with the likes of Rock legend Uli Roth, has found himself inhabiting as part of the Chivalry & Sorcery range and creating an album of inspiration and recognition to all that was once held dear.

Mark Smith’s The King & The Dragon is an album of individual serenity and the sense of the epic ground together as if mixed by a master conjurer, an instrumental album which silently pleasures the mind as it is reminded of the ways of old, that of a narrative unhindered by the discovery of the hero and one who nothing to apologise for in the search of salvation.

Across tracks such as the graceful Abundant Lands, Fruitful Harvest, the ferocity of meaning behind Enter The King, Banquet and September Skies Battle Joined, the artfulness of The Mother Lays Waste, Return Triumphant and Dragon Mothers Mourn, Mark Smith frames, not only the idea of the medieval epic as if it had been written by Thomas Mallory, but brings it into the modern age of catching the ideal to which George R. R. Martin might have set music to via Marillion the musician in his own books.

Fantasy and chivalric traditions go hand in hand, it is a belief of time that we have these dreams of old, because they bleed through to the present day dangers we must attend, instead of dragons, we have political ideals to fight, instead of swords we must use words and sounds of caution; but the result is the same, the minstrel plays a tune to which will be remembered, and for Mark Smith’s fans, once they have heard this iconic piece, it will never leave their minds.

Ian D. Hall