Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
What kind of world are we leaving for our children, what madness have we exposed our fragile souls and precariously balanced minds to, for we have become overwhelmed with the unpicking of the detail that we have either, through neglect or apathy, maybe even self-preservation and wilful ignorance, the big picture!
Concentration is of a premium in today’s world, the soundbite has become the go to expression, the attention span has been deliberately shredded, and focus has become a challenge, for we are bombarded on all sides by the actions of madmen and those who turn our heads every few moments in the desire to sell us more of all that we don’t need, the price, our sanity, our respect, our souls.
In a world where it seems to always be on the edge of twilight, to finally be able to appreciate a certain time is to understand that when it is An Hour Before It’s Dark then you listen to the voice in your mind and evaluate where you truly stand, which decisions you will come to which will benefit humanity rather than your own selfish genes.
More than 30 years since Marillion released Seasons End, they have come to epitomise more than the Progressive sound, the lyrical poetry of the previous decade, and have blossomed into the what lays beyond, the magnitude of the ethereal, the hard edged rock sound blessed with a feel that comes from between the tick and the tock; for there is more to be found, to be explored, and focused on when we see the second as being divisible, and in that space the listener is gifted meditation and attention.
An album by the masters of their trade, a piece of art that calms the listener’s essence whilst ramping up the heartbeat, for in this delicate balance between worlds, the light giving way to the nightfall in the forever cosmic dance, Marillion once again return in the outstanding An Hour Before It’s Dark,and like taking hold of a mysterious book of spells and finding a solution to an age old consuming problem, so the listener is offered notes between songs, of images between the metaphor and the writing of truth, and by embracing it leads to a conjuring that has been building since 2004’s Marbles.
Searing, empathetic guitars, intricate keyboards and effects, haunting vocals and dig deep lyrics, the momentum of passion between drum and the dependable and always thunderous appreciation of bass, this is the spell that is incarnated before it turns dark, the remainder of light, the time it takes to enter between the 12th and 8th degree, leads to this invocation of words and music, dispelling the evil that this way comes.
The album, produced by the legendary Michael Hunter, consists of many roads in which the follower can travel in such a movement, Be Hard On Yourself, Reprogram The Gene, the instrumental of Only A Kiss, Murder Machines, The Crow and the Nightingale, Sierra Leone, Care, and the sweep of tributes that lead to the flowing ethereal river by the side of the travelled road is enhanced by the addition of quartets and chorus, of additional players that add an unexpected source of light which fights the desire to run headlong into the darkness; instead adding illumination, adding the incantation of chant and charm to an already explosive dream.
For Steve Hogarth, Steve Rothery, Mark Kelly, Pete Trewavas, and Ian Mosley, An Hour Before It’s Dark is the light, sometimes that light throws shadows and glare across subjects we cannot face, but in truth we must, it may be brutal, it may be hard to take and understand, but acknowledge it we must, and if it is presented in the way that this album is, then it can only serve us well.
Ian D. Hall