Artist: Marillion
Title: An Hour Before It’s Dark (Hardcover CD / DVD)
Genre: Progressive Rock
Release Date: 4th March 2022
Label: earMUSIC
Album Review
Like always with MARILLION… it’s pure MARILLION DNA, but here and there, you just think “Oh, that’s new”. May it be some new kind of synth sounds, guitar effects, drum patterns. That’s subtle and need some efforts but hey: this is an album band. You don’t throw a MARILLION track in a Spotify crap playlist, guys. While most of the albums from the 2000/ 2010s consisted in tracks in the four to six minutes areas, it’s to be noted that since ‘Sounds That Can’t Be Made’, the long pieces are back on track. Half of the album is more than nine minutes, climbing to fifteen with the closing track.
The album starts with the beautiful choral & orchestra of ‘Be Hard On Yourself’ and evolves into a nine minutes+ voyage. The experience of touring with strigs orchestra and choirs back in 2018 certainly had an impact on the band. But with MARILLION, what matter the most are lyrics and theme. ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ is heavily inspired by the COVID crisis that shook the world for two years. The album covers, with hope and delicacy, the challenges humanity is now faced to: consumerism (‘Be Hard On Yourself’), victims of the crisis (‘Murder Machine’), poverty (‘Sierra Leone’) and a tribute to all medics around the world (‘Care’). Kind of off-topic in this album, a tribute to Leonard Cohen (‘The Crow and the Nighingale’).
It's useless diving in details track by track with this kind of music. How can you sum up a fifteen minutes masterpiece in a couple of words? Already acknowledged by critics and fans as one of their finest works, ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ is simply MARILLION at his best. The deluxe edition comes in a beautiful box with a 100+ pages booklet (lyrics, photographs, graphic arts), a DVD with Stereo and 5.1 surround versions of the album, the promo video and the 12” version of ‘Murder Machines’ as well as a ‘Making Of The Album Documentary’.
Tracklist
01. Be Hard On Yourself
02. Reprogram The Gene
03. Only A Kiss
04. Murder Machines
05. The Crow And The Nightingale
06. Sierra Leone
07. Care
Deluxe DVD:
Full Album Stereo & 5.1 Surround
‘Murder Machines’ Promo Film Stereo & 5.1 Surround
‘Murder Machines’ 12” Remix Stereo & 5.1 Surround
Making Of Documentary
Line-up
Steve Rothery – Guitars
Mark Kelly – Keyboards
Pete Trewavas – Bass Guitar
Ian Mosley – Drums
Steve Hogarth – Vocals and Keyboards
Website
www.marillion.com
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 10
Sound: 10
Bonus: 10
Total: 10 / 10
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