Originally published by L.S. Media. March 26th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating *****

If there is such a thing as a marriage made in Heaven, then the day John Mitchell and Lee Pomeroy joined It Bites must surely be the closest moment for fans of Progressive Rock.

Map of the Past is only the second album that John Mitchell, John Beck, Bob Dalton and Lee Pomeroy have worked together on under the name of It Bites, however like 2008’s The Tall Ships, Map of the Past is an album that may have been long in its delivery but the result is so well worth the wait.

The album is the first to tie all the songs together under the banner of the long adored, by its legions of fans, concept album. It may seem a little weird to think of It Bites having never attempted such a feat before, after all the groups that slot alongside neatly It Bites in music writing, some that John Mitchell has been an instrumental force in, have all done at least one album with a continuous narrative thread through it. It holds an idea together; it can also bring out the best in a band and force them to face certain subjects that they are writing about with more musical expression and care. Rather than put together a disparate list of songs that can pull this way and that, it gives the listener time to care what is happening within the framework of the album and fall in love with the songs as a whole.

Map of the Past is one such album, and although The Tall Ships was an intelligent and much loved album, this new offering by the four cracking musicians sees It Bites lofted amongst the very best of the genre. From the beautiful Man in the Photograph with its images of a radio and sounds of a long distant and forgotten, by some, past to the outstanding The Big Machine with its grand scale and definitive It Bites sound with all four musicians not only sounding as if they had fun producing this album but also that the reflection and insight that they gained in recording it will inspire them to make a third album together.

The track Cartoon Graveyard cuts through any pretence that sometimes those that don’t get the real idea of a concept album have about the way to understand what bands are trying to say. Think Pink Floyd and Comfortably Numb, Marillion’s Incommunicado or Genesis’ Carpet Crawlers and you get the idea, these are songs that stand out and can be heard out of sequence if you should wish. They are that good to play by themselves but they really make you hanker for the album as a whole.

Map of the Past is a dynamic and successful attempt at bringing back the idea of a narrative story to the world of music. March may have brought the record playing public some great albums to listen to, however Map of the Past shows why It Bites should be savoured and played frequently for the rest of the year and beyond.

Ian D. Hall