Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Albion is a name that conjures up a different time, a place in which few would even think about now but for the odd semi-muted mutterings of a dusty academic or a fan of West Brom or Brighton after a win at home. The act of a union of a long gone age but which was forged in fire, diplomacy and the blood of many a soul. The coming together of the mythical Albion is entrenched though in some thoughts as the long established Manchester Rock band Ten is in others, and for them Albion is a by-word for an alliance of closely themed songs which can set the pulse racing just that little quicker.
When all is lost it seems, you can fall back on the lyric writing of Gary Hughes to inflame a passion, the quality of which has remarkably, compared to other groups in the same genre, stayed fresh and interesting, perhaps only being equalled by the likes of Magnum and Thunder, who are masters of the story telling rock epic.
It takes more than a good lyric to beat down the door of selfish indolence, to rattle the cage on the modern day craving for disposability and interesting days of a past that has been swept under the carpet. It takes time and cohesion and with seven members adding their own individuality to the nature of the beast, that could be a disaster waiting to happen.
There has always been something good in the way that the marriage and lyrics come bouncing out of the speakers when listening to Ten, something edifying but Albion takes it one stage further. Each song is a mini epic, a 21st Century nod to the tales of Sir Gawain battling The Green Knight or the darkness that surrounds Old English tales lost to the mist and urbanisation that goes hand in hand with the times we find ourselves in.
With tracks such as It’s Alive, the superb Albion Born, Sometimes Love Takes The Long Way Home, the stunning Gioco D’Amore and the album opener Alone In The Dark Tonight, Gary Hughes, Dann Rosingana, Steve Grocott, John Helliwell, Steve McKenna, Darrel Treece-Birch and Max Yates have covered themselves in glory and unity. There may be strength in numbers but counting on Ten is a joining together of like-minded individuals prepared to fight for a cause, Albion is that cause and it rocks.
Ian D. Hall