PENDRAGON – Believe

I can not believe it! How was it possible that the existence of this band had escaped my knowledge so far? PENDRAGON - the legendary name alone gives already an impression about the quality of the music Nick Barrett (guitar, vocals), head and the only left founding-member of the band creates, supported by his colleagues Clive Nolan (keyboards), Peter Gee (bass, guitar) and Fudge Smith (drums).
PENDRAGON is what became of the 1976 born school-band Zeus Pendragon, which had dedicated itself to the music of Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac - just naming a few. The band suffered various line-up changes, but soon got enough attention through its own material that it was given the opportunity to play as a support for Marillion. This connection lasted for years and was responsible for the release of the first full-length album The Jewel (1985, reissue 2005).
Nevertheless PENDRAGON for some reason were not able to convince any label to sign them. After a cancelled deal with EMI and overcome private crises, the band, then consisting of the musicians who are PENDRAGON until today, founded its own label Toff Records and now, on the 29th August 2005, twenty years after their first album, published the seventh album Believe, still independently.

It is not easy to explain to the listener what he will experience with Believe. The album is highly emotional, but still almost catchy. It presents an unbelievable musical variety and still is a kind of homogeneous. Nick Barrett's voice moves in between Johan Edlund's (Tiamat) and Steve Hogarth's (Marillion). The release is a wonderful synthesis of the influences PENDRAGON are referring to in their band-history (Pink Floyd, Marillion, Camel, Dire Straits, Genesis, Supertramp, Tears For Fears, Yes) and their very own style.
With the opener Believe, which is more of an intro, they create an atmosphere that reminds me of the one in Lisa Gerrard's music for "Gladiator", but all the sudden, with heavily distorted guitars it rocks like Pink Floyd. Even more Rock that makes you want to dance comes with No Place For The Innocent, in which Barrett deals with the question, if one should blindly believe what is presented in school, press, television and the like. In a shimmering complexity of virtuous acoustic guitars with Mexican influences, interesting synthesizer-sounds and a demanding voice The Wisdom Of Solomon explains the fact that exaggerated political correctness can even increase the misunderstandings of different cultures. Simply wonderful to listen to is The Wishing Well. Divided into four parts, its first few minutes could have been from a late Marillion-record. But later on the connection of choir, keys and recited, thoughtful lyrics transports a special touching mood that almost feels like listening to early Procol Harum.
I do not want to continue describing each single track, because it would never ever get close to the experience of listening to the music.

Nowadays one would not often find music that communicates commitment and emotions in such an authentic way as PENDRAGON do it with Believe. It completely follows a statement that Nick Barrett quoted: music should make people laugh, cry and sigh.
Listen to this beautiful piece of music. There are snippets in considerable length to be found on the band's homepage. Also the examples of the older, quieter, more keyboard-dominated records are worth risking an ear.
I thinkPENDRAGON's Believe will not leave my CD-player for quite some time and I hope that we will here a lot more of these veterans and masters of Progressive Rock in the future and that the hard times finally completely belong to the past for them. In this sense I give them 10 points with all my heart!