TEN - stub review added 11th December 2008
Album Review: Babylon (2000)
For fans of: hard rock... and geeky science fiction stories
Babylon is a concept album based around events on a future version of Earth. The story is fine in principle. The problem comes when you combine it with the songs.
Tracks like 'The Stranger', 'Give In This Time' and 'Love Became The Law' are some of the best pieces of music Ten have ever written. In principle it's their catchiest, best performed, heaviest and most tuneful album of all. In reality the conceptual parts are a pain in the butt and detract heavily from the experience. Why they had to have spoken interludes I don't know, they really break up the flow of the album.
If Gary Hughes and co. could have written a few extra songs and removed the spoken sections Babylon could have been a real classic. As it is, it's worth buying but with the proviso it might annoy the hell out of you.
Check out... 'Timeless'. It's like an Egyptian inspired heavy metal version of Cat Stevens' 'Wild World'. And It's bloody excellent.
Track List:
1. The Stranger
2. Barricade
3. Give In This Time
4. Love Became The Law
5. The Heat
6. Silent Rain
7. Timeless
8. Black Hearted Woman
9. Thunder In Heaven
10. Valentine
Label: Frontiers Records
Artist's websites: Ten
