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Pendragon - The Masquerade Overture

Artist: Pendragon
Title: The Masquerade Overture
Label: Toff Records PEND7CD
Length(s): 57+19m minutes
Year(s) of release: 1996
Month of review: 06/1996

Line up

Nick Barrett - guitars, vocals
Clive Nolan - keyboards
Fudge Smith - drums
Peter Gee - bass guitar
Some help by Tracy Hitchings and some others
Compositions by Nick Barrett
Great artwork all round by Simon Williams

Tracks

1) The Masquerade Overture 3.03
2) As Good As Gold 7.15
3) Paintbox 8.39
4) The Pursuit Of Excellence 2.37
5) Guardian Of My Soul 12.41
6) The Shadow 9.55
7) Masters Of Illusion 12.51

Tracks bonus CD:
1) As Good As Gold (edit) 3.27
2) Masters Of Illusion (edit) 3.33
3) Schizo 6.59
4) The King Of The Castle 4.45 (The Shadow part 2)

Summary

Some misunderstanding about this album. I was promised a copy, but didn't get it. So, when I coincidentally informed with Bertus whether I could get some stuff to review, they said they had this one, so of course I grabbed it. Later talk with Barrett showed that they thought they had sent it to me, but after close examination found they hadn't. Still here it is, including a review of the bonus CD. My copy also included a small booklet with information about every release of Pendragon including which song is on which CD.

The music

It is typically Pendragon on this disc: very melodic, lots of guitar and those typical Barrett vocals. Nothing wrong with that however, judging from a great album like The World and great songs like 2AM, The Hauting and what have you.

The album starts, which is becoming a standard really, with an intro with some bel canto singing. In track two the intro is as it were repeated but with quiet singing by Barrett. After a while it turns into some kind of singalong track. I have to admit it's very catchy.

The third track is one of the better ones in my opinion. The vocal melody is good, there's some excellent guitarplaying and both bass and synths are allowed to play their solo part as well. The ending is quiet.

The fourth one has a lot of flute is a little uneventful. It sounds rather like a traditional, but written by nick instead of John Doe. A little cheesy maybe.

Guardian of my Soul starts out heavy and is a typical Pendragon track. The song is very spacious, like it was played on an open beach (with gull to match). After a while (in teh demon part) the music gets a more threatening tone and a little bite (which doesn't hurt). Quite a lot of variation and some nice busy drumming in the end.

The Shadow starts a bit sad but after a while takes a turn for the better and sounds quite hopeful in the end. At the very end the first verse is repeated.

The best track (with 3) is the closer. Agin, a lot of good melodies and a fantastic guitarsolo at the end. There are some more Pink Floyd influences here (the choir) and something reminded me very much of Shane (from The World).

The second CD contains two rather poppy edits of two of the longer tracks on the album and the follow up to the Shadow. Indeed it is a follow-up and some of the lyrics come back as well. The other track Schizo is again like Floyd especially the female background vocals.

Conclusion

Like with Camel, a nice album and I think I like Pendragon better than Camel, because of the rougher edges. Still, even here there's little talk of progression beyond what I already knew of Pendragon. Do I mind? Not really. Do you?
© Jurriaan Hage