Review Summary: A prog melodic rock adventure. One of 90’s strongest releases.
“The Masquerade Overture” is the fifth studio album of Pendragon that was released in 1996. The line up on the album is Nick Barrett, Clive Nolan, Peter Gee and Fudge Smith. The album had also the participation of Tracy Hitchings, Tina Riley, Anthony Plowman, Gwen Ross and Simon Clew.
Pendragon was one of the fouders of the neo-prog sub-genre with Marillion, IQ, Pallas and Galahad. Pendragon was fouded in 1976, in the small town of Stroud, Gloucestshire, England, by young enthusiast Nick Barrett and some school friends. Initially the band’s name was Zeus Pendragon, which would be shortened two years later. The first years of the band were difficult. After the two first studio albums of the band, “The Jewel” and “Kowtow”, Pendragon stabilized and released three of their best studio works, “The World”, “The Window Of Life” and this one, “The Masquerade Overture”.
“The Masquerade Overture” is in general considered Pendragon’s best studio album till then, in terms of production, artwork, booklet and especially due to its lyrics and its superb musicianship. It can be also considered by many their best work ever. Pendragon, at least at this point in their career, played a style of symphonic neo-prog rock. Great layers of symphonic keyboards, some nice melodic guitar solos, and the British accented vocals are the main features that characterize “The Masquerade Overture”. Despite the influences, their upbeat attitude gives to them a unique sound.
The concept of the album is the eternal battle between Good and Evil, as is depicted on the sleeve as a battle between Toff on the right and Salieri, the composer who aledgedly murdered Mozart, on the left. People are wearing masks, as in the Venetian carnival. Pendragon has obvious influences from bands like Marillion, IQ, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and Yes, but their upbeat attitude gives them their own unique sound. Pendragon never fell into a “clone band” category, and this album arguably shows the band at their creative peak. The production has a synthetic feel that I think it fits the mood of the album perfectly sounding crystal clear and powerful. So, this is modern symphonic prog rock at its best.
The title track is a classical opener with great keyboard work and the beautiful voice of a female church singer Gwen Ross. It’s a fantastic way to open the album that reminds me Mozart. A classical overture is often used by prog rock bands like Yes, Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe and Marillion. “As Good As Gold” is a great atmospheric song with nice melodies and good singing. It’s a beautiful song well structured and with a nice choral work that shows the influences of the classical music inside the band. “Paintbox” is another excellent song with a nice atmosphere, great melodies and a superb guitar playing. It’s a great song with one of the most beautiful and sweetest melodies I’ve ever heard and the chorus is memorable. “The Pursuit Of Excellence” is a keyboard based song, nice and pleasant to hear. Unfortunately, it has very little to do with the great music of the rest of the album. Despite be a good song, it’s the lowest point on the album. “Guardian Of My Soul” is the epic on the album. It’s another excellent piece with almost thirteen minutes of full enjoyment. Here we have powerful music, tempo changes, great melodies, excellent keyboard and guitar works and nice backing vocals. “The Shadow” is a relaxing song, almost a ballad with nice and sensitive lyrics. It’s calm and beautiful, with nice vocals and very beautiful keyboard and guitar works. The classic influence of Genesis’ music is noticed on it. “Masters Of Illusion” is one of the highlights with more than twelve minutes of exciting music, from the very quiet beginning till the last moment. It combines perfectly well the old progressive style with the more melodic songs of their latest studio albums. With this track Pendragon closes the album really in a great style.
My version of “The Masquerade Overture” has also an eighth track. This is a special bonus track, which is a live version of the song “The Last Man On Earth”. The only thing I can say about the track is that we are in presence of an excellent live version of the song that can only help even further to improve the all musical quality level of the all album, surely.
Conclusion: “The Masquerade Overture” is undoubtedly one of Pendragon’s best works till now. It follows the same steps of their previous two studio albums “The World” and “The Window Of Life”, but in a better way. This is a very consistent and cohesive album with some excellent sounding music and production by Karl Groom and Nick Barrett. The only Achilles’ heel on the album is “The Pursuit Of Excellence”, which is a little bit weaker than the rest of the songs on it. However, it isn’t enough to affect the overall high quality of the all album. “The Masquerade Overture” is probably their magnum opus. This is the epitome of the genre, a classic that can rival the likes of “Script For A Jester’s Tear” and “Ever” for sure, only to mention a few. With “The Masquerade Overture”, Pendragon reached the rare status to be one of the best neo-prog bands in our days. They joined their name to Marillion, IQ, Pallas and Galahad.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
