Artist: Ten
Label: Frontiers Records
Released: 2011
Length: 59:24
Rating: 4.5/5
Ten, those British heroes of splendid melodic rock with a flavor all their own, who set out in the blackest of times for melody in rock music – the mid-nineties, that is – came back in 2004 with “Return To Evermore” after some turbulent years at the start of the previous decade! It was the first album without Vinnie Burns, an original and founding member of Ten, a very cautious and awfully pretty record that helped the band ride out the rough patch. Two years later came “The Twilight Chronicles”. That one is marked by an even more decisive swing toward the symphonic, with ever richer arrangements wrapped around the core of the hard rock stance. Gary Hughes’ side project, the two-part rock opera “Once And Future King”, surely helped nudge things in that direction too.
“Stormwarning” is really a continuation of the evolutionary path its predecessor laid out. Sticking to it more than paid off for Ten, because after five long years of waiting, “Stormwarning” is exactly what “The Twilight Chronicles” was trying to be but never quite managed to deliver. “Stormwarning” cashes in on the band’s effort to find a balanced dialogue between symphonic, bombastic arrangements and a classic hard rock attitude, for a new era and a new lineup. Those five years were undoubtedly welcome, because Ten managed to come up with a handful of melodies, in terms of both tunes and the choice of fitting guitar phrases, that are fascinatingly fresh and never fade from the memory banks of your brain processor once you’ve taken them in. Take the radio-friendly The Hourglass And The Landslide, or right after it Destiny, with a striking Celtic folk motif etched into the guitar phrase, one that even early Dare or Gary Moore in his Wild Frontier phase wouldn’t be ashamed of. Those little tricks aren’t new, if we cast our minds back to, say, the arrangement of the Ten song Evermore from 2004.
Ten’s edge over other melodic rock bands lies in their distinctive musical stance, which they define by constantly mixing symphonic elements with hard rock structures, and in Gary Hughes’ unmistakable vocal style. He never forces his way into falsetto and the highest registers. This time too, he wisely sticks to the mid-to-low range, and his particular timbre lets him plant a specific atmosphere that clings to the songs. Gary’s vocal is a touch dark throughout, and at the same time it works as an indispensable addition to every second of the new album. After all, Ten just can’t exist without Hughes. The very first track, Endless Symphony, confirms a few things. Atmospherically it carries on the mood of the mini epic suite Rome (the opener of the previous album), while the production sounds much livelier, warmer, fuller and more intense than on that record. Thanks to working with seasoned producer Dennis Ward, who is definitely swimming in the same musical waters as Ten today, it’s the best possible solution among the (European-based) producers, and then there’s one more very important fact. The refresh of Ten’s lineup during the recording of “Stormwarning”
The refresh brought a new lead guitarist, Neil Fraser, in place of Chris Francis, plus a new bassist, Mark Sumner, while the drums in the studio were handled, as a hired gun, by the out-of-series Mark Zonder, otherwise a member of American prog metal veterans Fates Warning.
Ten have clearly found their footing in this combination more than splendidly, and the lion’s share of the credit goes to new guitarist Fraser. He handles every situation Hughes’ songwriting throws at him. Fraser is also a much wittier guitarist than Francis. The guitar work on the new album is extremely dynamic and lively. Various passing ornaments hover over the riffs the whole way through, woven in very compatibly, and as such they effectively underline the dramatic moment of the captured atmosphere. Fraser is also a much more explosive guitarist, spitting out outstanding solos with pleasing, sudden leaps between runs of ridiculously fast notes, and careful placement of individual tones into sensible melodic combinations, with skillful use of the tremolo bar and pull-offs. The new guitarist is basically the main carrier of the refreshed sound of the new Ten, and he decently fills the absence of the hard-to-replace Burns in every respect.
An interesting detour on the album is the track Invisble. The use of keyboards here is intriguing, most reminiscent of Hodson’s days with Hard Rain (Watch out! Where Hard Rain are, Magnum are never far away!), while Hughes, combined with the riff, especially in the verse, and with a bit of an improvisational streak, brings to life a touch of the American approach to melodic rock, typical of a band like Alliance.
So “Stormwarning” has distilled the essence of its predecessor and lifted it to a level of quality “par exellence”, because it embodies exactly what the band wanted. To hit with a powerful, intense album full of vibrant atmosphere that is at least a little dark throughout, has a touch of mysticism, and of course a specific approach to creating that epic seasoning. It doesn’t lack variety whenever we look at how the accompanying cloak that clings to Hughes’ vocal quirks is built. It adapts flexibly to every moment of Hughes’ vocal approach, a direct example being the duality of verse and chorus in the excellent Love Song, where the intensity of “eighties” synthesizers floods the verse and Gary’s sophisticated vocal touch fits it like a glove, all the way to the expansion of the bombastically catchy chorus, where striking guitar riffs cut in alongside. The dialogue between keyboards and guitar is extremely strong and effective on the new album. In this respect “Stormwarning” has definitely matured beyond all the Ten albums so far. Tracks like Center Of My Universe, Kingdom Come or the title track are proof of the exceptional cohesion of all the factors (sound creation, vocals included), which successfully build a tense, dramatic-theater atmosphere across the album, while masterfully dealing with the element of melodic catchiness that works on the very first listen.
The album’s last track, The Wave, is the moment that calms things down a bit. The symphonic (string) arrangements take the lead over the riffing here, and the development of the composition itself owes a lot to the legacy of The Beatles. Ten don’t lose focus in this move at all, and on this track too they play a winning poker hand of aces. The song makes for an outstanding finale to this truly intense album, which is practically bursting with strongly vibrant moods. With its positive vibration, The Wave masterfully rides out of the album’s theatrical tension, and in its basic structure it’s a song that a band of Ten’s caliber can only wish for as the closer to an album like this.
Don’t go looking for the first Ten albums in “Stormwarning”. Sadly, those can’t be repeated, but this one does show Ten at their peak in the state they’ve found themselves in since 2001. The band was even on the verge of breaking up in 2007. Burns’ genius is still missed, but Hughes compensates for that shortfall elegantly with his elemental sense for writing catchy compositions, while Fraser, as the new guitarist, alongside old-timer Paul Hodson on keyboards, more than successfully handles all the basic tasks of re-creating the elemental punch and melodicism that always met Ten’s high standard of expression. “Stormwarning” is thus the album that, “for the third time” (after “Return To Evermore” and “The Twilight Chornicles”), has successfully cemented a new musical vision for a new era of Ten, and we can only hope the band holds firmly to these directions on future albums too and keeps nurturing and building on them.
Lineup
Gary Hughes – vocals, guitar, backing vocals
Neil Fraser – guitar
John Halliwell – guitar
Paul Hodson – keyboards, programming
Mark Sumner – bass guitar
Mark Zonder – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Johnny Gibbons – guitar
Jason Thanos – backing vocals
Production
Dennis Ward
Tracklist
1. Endless Symphony (7:26)
2. Centre of My Universe (6:07)
3. Kingdom Come (5:35)
4. Book of Secrets (5:18)
5. Stormwarning (5:39)
6. Invisible (5:38)
7. Love Song (7:07)
8. The Hourglass and the Landslide (4:49)
9. Destiny (6:13)
10. The Wave (5:32)
