Ten - Something Wicked This Way Comes

[Stefan]

 

Everybody's favourite band releases their 67th (or something) album 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' January 20 next year.

More exciting details to come...

[Jez]

More bog averageness guaranteed

[Stefan]

16 minutes ago, Jez said:

More bog averageness guaranteed

 

No way Jose.

[Kourosofsteel4]

On 10/13/2022 at 3:09 PM, Jez said:

More bog averageness guaranteed

 Well, at least they progressed from The Bible to master Bradbury this time...

[Darkstone]

3 hours ago, Kourosofsteel4 said:

 Well, at least they progressed from The Bible to master Bradbury this time...

The Bible?

[Kourosofsteel4]

11 hours ago, Darkstone said:

The Bible?

 

[Darkstone]

13 minutes ago, Kourosofsteel4 said:

 

Yeah, not a Biblical story mate.

The whole "St. George and the Dragon" mythos and indeed his history, although hijacked by the Christian Church, is far more Gnostic than Christian as is most of ten's work.

[Stefan]

 

New song 'The Tidal Wave'.

From Frontiers:

UK hard rock stalwarts TEN used the downtime during the worldwide pandemic to work on not one, but two new albums. The first album to be released, "Here Be Monsters", landed on February 18, 2022 via Frontiers Music Srl. And now, the label is pleased to announce the second album of the two, "Something Wicked This Way Comes" on January 20, 2023.

Following the success of the recent string of albums, from “Albion” to “Illuminati”, Hughes was joined once again by guitarists Dann Rosingana, Steve Grocott and John Halliwell along with bass player Steve McKenna, keyboard maestro Darrel Treece-Birch and drummer Markus Kullman (Sinner, Glenn Hughes, Voodoo Circle) for the recording of "Something Wicked This Way Comes". TEN continue to raise the musical bar higher for themselves, a goal they push on every release. Stunning guitar work, rich keyboards, excellent bass and drum interplay along with Hughes’ rich vocals are the order of the day here, as they were on this album's immediate predecessor, "Here Be Monsters". 

“Something Wicked This Way Comes” was produced by Gary Hughes and mixed and mastered by Dennis Ward. TEN’s longstanding professional association with Dennis has been ongoing since he mixed their 2011 album, “Stormwarning” and has always guaranteed albums with stunning sound and production.

Fans should note that there are no ties between "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and "Here Be Monsters" or anything of this nature. The band simply crafted two high quality releases and decided to put them out separately, in a fashion not too dissimilar to what happened with their amazing first two records which were recorded one after the other in a very short period of time.

British hard rockers TEN have an outstanding history of releases in their storied and revered catalog. Starting out as a sort of solo project built around singer and songwriter Gary Hughes, TEN found their audience playing a hard rock sound influenced by such giants as UFO, Thin Lizzy, Magnum, Giant, and Whitesnake in a time when playing this particular sound was considered ommericial suicide. The band's early records such as “The Name Of The Rose”, “The Robe”, “Spellbound“, and “Babylon” established the band as mainstays in the melodic hard rock genre, which has continued throughout their now 26 year career over the course of 15 studio albums.

 

Tracklisting:
1. Look For The Rose
2. Brave New Lie
3. The Tidal Wave
4. Parabellum
5. Something Wicked This Way Comes
6. The Fire And The Rain
7. New Found Hope
8. The Only Way Out
9. When The Darkness Comes
10. The Greatest Show On Earth

Line-Up:
Gary Hughes - Vocals, Guitar, Backing Vocals
Dann Rosingana - Guitars
Steve Grocott - Guitars
Darrel Treece-Birch - Keyboards
Steve McKenna - Bass

Markus Kullman - Drums

Additional Musicians:
Scott Hughes - Backing Vocals
Karen Fell - Backing Vocals

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Stefan

[AlphaMale]

[Geoff]

That’s actually a good musical track… most enjoyable I’ve heard from them in an age, but the lyrics and general “appeal” of the song really turns me off. Can anyone picture themselves singing those lyrics in their head waiting in line at McDonalds? 

[Jez]

Not bad, but not very inspiring either.

[Stefan]

New song 'Look For The Rose'.

 

 

[Stefan]

Album out now. More exciting songs from the album:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Stefan

[Eric3]

22 hours ago, Stefan said:

Album out now. More exciting songs from the album:

 

 

I like this one. Smooth, easy to listen to, nice vocal melodies.

Which, by the way, is the main reason I like this band. I can actually sing along with Hughes because my vocal range is like 1/4 of an octave. lol

[Jez]

I played this again today and nearly fell asleep at the wheel. Bar a couple of tracks, I'm over it already after 5 days 

[Geoff]

I find it hard to pen how I see this band these days, but I think the closest I could do is call them the Hootie & The Blowfish of the rock world. 

To me, based on the early days, Ten is meant to be a powerful rock band. Whether they're playing melodic stuff, or the heavier stuff, my best memories of them are as a good, heavy and melodic band. 

I'm not sure what's happening these days, but dreadful songs aside, it just sounds like something like The Traveling Wilburies (minus a few decent songs and decent vocals) dressed up as a hard rock band. Everything just sounds so watered down and weak, and then you combine that with the dreary, completely uninspired, hook-free song-writing and it's just a dreadful recipe. I say this sometimes, but it's never been more obvious in a band than Ten at the moment, that it just sounds like no one on this album cares. And I hate saying that if they've put their heart and soul into it, because it sounds like the complete opposite.

[auslander]

4 hours ago, Geoff said:

I find it hard to pen how I see this band these days, but I think the closest I could do is call them the Hootie & The Blowfish of the rock world. 

To me, based on the early days, Ten is meant to be a powerful rock band. Whether they're playing melodic stuff, or the heavier stuff, my best memories of them are as a good, heavy and melodic band. 

I'm not sure what's happening these days, but dreadful songs aside, it just sounds like something like The Traveling Wilburies (minus a few decent songs and decent vocals) dressed up as a hard rock band. Everything just sounds so watered down and weak, and then you combine that with the dreary, completely uninspired, hook-free song-writing and it's just a dreadful recipe. I say this sometimes, but it's never been more obvious in a band than Ten at the moment, that it just sounds like no one on this album cares. And I hate saying that if they've put their heart and soul into it, because it sounds like the complete opposite.

I wonder if Ten would ever cover I Only Want To Be With You. 

[Geoff]

42 minutes ago, auslander said:

I wonder if Ten would ever cover I Only Want To Be With You. 

Sadly, it'd be their best song in... what are we up to now? Has it been 20 years since their last half decent album? Either way, it'd be their best song in a hell of a long time. 

And I don't really mean to be taking the piss out of Hootie and the Crew. They were probably okay for what they were, I guess, at the time. But in the fullness of time you could argue that that era of popular rock was quite bland, sackless and quite forgettable. Which would be a polite way to describe the current state of Ten's output.  

[Eric3]

Official Eric3 verdict: This album sucks.

It's just so boring. I admit to not being as familiar with this band's catalog as the rest of you but I can totally see where the comments about derivative, plodding songs come from. There are a few nice vocal melodies here and there but apart from a few songs (The Fire and The Rain, The Tidal Wave, Parabellum) there's just nothing that makes me want to listen again.

It shares some qualities - both good and bad - with Here Be Monsters, but that one had several more songs that aren't instant skips.