{"id":49538,"date":"2015-05-29T23:05:59","date_gmt":"2015-05-30T04:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=49538"},"modified":"2015-05-30T08:34:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-30T13:34:48","slug":"ten-isla-de-muerta-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/ten-isla-de-muerta-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten | Isla De Muerta<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"TenIslaDeMuerta\"Piratical stories\u2026 The spellbinding mystery oozing from them, freedom of sailing the seven seas unrestrained. All of us remember reading these gripping tales which fed our wildest dreams in the early days of ours. Those were the tales of adventure, liberty and romance, of debauch and greed \u2013 all written down on yellowish maps and resounding between the walls of crowded dock taverns. Now, those stories seem like a guilty pleasure for most of us \u2013 \u2018serious\u2019 adults, that is \u2013 but on the other hand, huge popularity of the Pirates Of the Caribbean<\/em> series in recent years wasn\u2019t accidental. The compelling charm of piratical themes adds color to the music, too \u2013 think bands such as Running Wild or Alestorm. What about the British Melodic Rock act Ten? Are they pirates at heart too? After Celtic-themed Albion<\/em>, now it seems Gary Hughes and his crew sailed forward under the pirate flag indeed as one\u2019s looking upon their new album\u2019s cover\u2026 Entitled Isla De Muerta, it\u2019s out in May 2015 via Rocktopia Records and has already spawned a single \u201cTell Me What To Do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panache, mystery and cinematic, picturesque feel to it are what one would have expected from a pirate-themed album. Isla De Muerta seems to have it all as the first track starts. It\u2019s the elaborate instrumental opening \u201cBuccaneers\u201d that smoothly morphs into an atmospheric piece \u201cDead Men Tell No Tales,\u201d an opening that\u2019s very promising as for the sea voyage under the Ten flag. However, further on the \u2018piratical\u2019 themes are utilized mostly in terms of lyrics. Whoever expected from Gary Hughes and his crew to abandon their trademark Melodic Rock sound in favor of epic, expanded suites in line with adventure movie scores \u2013 may be thus a bit disappointed. The flavor is still here (the keyboard opening to \u201cAquiesce,\u201d for example), but the overall feeling is that the music content of the album is simply no different to the group\u2019s usual style. Is it a fault then? Definitely not, as we sail toward our destination \u2013 the titular Isla De Muerta<\/em> \u2013 accompanied by a handful of excellent, well-crafted songs that are performed adequately well. <\/p>\n

Isla De Muerta<\/em> is mostly catchy pieces embroidered with groovy, melodic bridges and choruses, all illustrated with imaginative, storytelling lyrics. Speaking shortly, all things Ten, starting from \u201cTell Me What To Do\u201d and \u201cAcquiesce\u201d through the full-bodied hook of \u201cThe Dragon And Saint George\u201d to the-next-to-last \u201cThe Last Pretender.\u201d An early \u201890s AOR vibe to the record is what a neat melodic mid-tempo entitled \u201cIntensify\u201d brings, whereas the slow, grandiose ballad \u201cThis Love\u201d enchants with wistful, wailing guitar sounds against the piano-based background. Another ballad-esque emotional out pour, much in the same manner music-wise is \u201cWe Can Be As One,\u201d the European bonus track. The instrumental, shred-laden piece entitled \u201cKarnak\u201d (an opening to the \u201cside B\u201d or the second part of the album, if to introduce such a division) precedes \u201cThe Valley Of The Kings\u201d which juxtaposes modern-sounding verses with grandiose choruses. Also a couple of latter tracks \u2013 \u201cRevolution\u201d and \u201cAngel Of Darkness\u201d \u2013 have a distinct modern vibe to them, being driven by the pulsating, throbbing groove in contemporary Melodic Rock aesthetics but also insidiously melodic. <\/p>\n

Isla De Muerta\u2019s<\/em> mentioned cover artwork may serve as a suggestion for the album to be a Melodic Rock answer to Running Wild\u2019s Under Jolly Roger or Port Royal. Somewhat sadly, it has to be admitted the idea for the pirate\/nautical-themed album could have been developed much more than it is here. Hence, its creative, cinematographic potential some of us could have hoped for gets partially wasted. Ten\u2019s newest effort is nevertheless up to standards in every possible aspect \u2013 songwriting, performance and certain genre-adequate catchiness to every single song on it. With Isla De Muerta<\/em>, Gary Hughes and his band deliver what\u2019s not only the rightful successor to the critically acclaimed Albion<\/em>, but also a perfectly-crafted Melodic Hard Rock album on its own. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nGary Hughes \u2013 Vocals
\nDann Rosingana \u2013 Guitars
\nSteve Grocott \u2013 Guitars
\nJohn Halliwell \u2013 Guitars
\nSteve Mckenna \u2013 Bass
\nDarrel Treece-Birch \u2013 Keyboards
\nMax Yates \u2013 Drums<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n01. (i) Buccaneers (Instrumental) (ii) Dead Men Tell No Tales
\n02. Tell Me What To Do
\n03. Acquiesce
\n04. This Love
\n05. The Dragon And Saint George
\n06. Intensify
\n07. (i) Karnak (Instrumental) (ii) The Valley Of The Kings
\n08. Revolution
\n09. Angel Of Darkness
\n10. The Last Pretender
\n11. We Can Be As One (European Bonus Track)<\/p>\n

Label: Rocktopia Records<\/p>\n

Website: http:\/\/www.tenofficial.com\/<\/a> – https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TenOfficial<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Senior Columnist — Piratical stories\u2026 The spellbinding mystery oozing from them, freedom of sailing the seven seas unrestrained. All of us remember reading these gripping tales which fed our wildest dreams […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12394],"tags":[10177,2317,10111,11269,2847,11270,1793],"class_list":{"0":"post-49538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2015","8":"tag-albion","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-gary-hughes","11":"tag-isla-de-muerta","12":"tag-melodic-hard-rock","13":"tag-rocktopia-records","14":"tag-ten"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}