Ten have become positively prolific……a new album just around a year after Stormwarning. Rather than the epoch-like gaps between Return to Nevermore, The Twilight Chronicles and Stormwarning, Gary Hughes and his boys make us wait just a dozen or so months to deliver Heresy and Creed – and what a sparkling album it is too. Very strong delivery from a mostly new line-up which puts it right up there with anything Ten or Hughes has done before.
After a few personnel changes over the past year, Heresy and Creed features the Hughes voice in fine form, the long-serving John Halliwell on guitars and the returning Steve McKenna on the bass. Paul Hodson has gone – on the ivories is Darrel Treece-Birch, Max Yeats flourishes sticks (sold job Max) and new guitarist Dan Mitchell puts in some quite dazzling fretwork. Add to that monster production from the wizard that is Dennis Ward and the recipe is there for a very fine melodic/hard rock album indeed.
As is almost customary with Ten, a short instrumental intro leads in to a very powerful opener. This time we have The Gates of Jerusalem segueing the driving neo-prog metal of Arabian Knights. This one will get to you straight away with the pumping riff and rapid soloing held together by washes of keyboards that gives it a very epic atmospheric feel. Awesome stuff.
Gunrunning is hook-laden melodic rock at its finest (not about what you think it might be about……) and it’s all good stuff throughout with other particular highlights being Insatiable and Game of Hearts. Fast paced, up-tempo stuff.
Whilst it will be no surprise that I am a big fan of Ten/Hughes, if I have one criticism of Uncle Gary it would be that he’s prone to slipping on the odd overly sugary sweet slow soppy ballad and that doesn’t float my boat. We have that here too though even the slow stuff is better than usual with more power to it.
I’ve had it firmly stuck in the car’s CD player ever since it arrived and I can see it staying there for a while yet. It’s simply marvellous. I just bought the Wild Horses stuff (Brian Robertson, all right…..) which arrived a couple of days ago though not even that’s caused the eject button to be pressed yet.
For me Heresy and Creed is album of the year so far as far as classic British rock music goes. Even better than Magnum’s latest. Don’t think about it, just get it.
Not just me who feels it’s so good. Here’s what another review has to say: “I think this is a great album. Having gone off Ten in recent times I wasn’t sure if this wouldn’t be one of those albums I buy and regret shortly after however, I’m very pleased to say, that wasn’t the case at all and if I hadn’t have bought it I now I feel I would have been missing out on one of Ten’s best.”
Read the rest of the review here…..
Please support us and buy us a coffee.
