Customer Reviews

Darkness Before Dawn

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nothing is (was) in Mentaur's favour. This music is the kind of neo-prog bombastic rock that is currently hated by the press (think Arena, Pendragon), and they do not have the financial muscle of those bands (this sounds like it was recorded in someone's bedroom - albeit by 5 maestros, who knew exactly what they were doing).

There are some poor tracks and some cringeworthy lyrics (Cracks, Chasing Time) but there are moments of sheer daring and virtuosity that make you regret the fact that this band is no more. The Last Battle, especially, showcases a team of stunning musicians, including a singer who can crack your speakers and a guitarist who can bring tears to the eyes.

In short, epic music, all the more impressive for being done on the cheap. If you like the genre, you will be mightily awed.

Mentaur are a band I followed from (almost) their early days... I went to gigs, bought all the tapes, and now... the CD!!!!
These guys are serious musicians, and it is a travesty of the music industry that they were never signed by a big lable and taken worldwide.
The guitar work is great, the keyboards, are great, the bass is great, and the drumming is amazing. Virtuosity is a word too often overused, but in this case, it could not be closer to the truth. You will rarely hear musicianship of this calibre.
Buy the CD and learn what real rock/prog should sound like. Ok, other bands have the look, they may even have some big publicity machines behind them, but there are very very few bands who can equal this one for the sheer talent behind every single note.
If you need proof, just listen to "Day of Wrath", it is one of my all-time favourite tracks, and I have over 500 albums!

People tend to think of Dream Theater and Queensryche as founding the Progressive Metal genre. But, people, Mentaur were doing it first! And what made Mentaur so special was that their links to the true prog of Genesis, Yes and 70's Floyd were tempered by knife edge riffing in the style of mid-period Metallica and Painkiller era Judas Priest. The virtuosity on display here is awesome. Rob Barter, the guitarist, can riff like Zakk Wylde but move you with Gilmour-esque solos that almost outdo the master himself. Tim Ridley's keyboard playing borrows substantially from Rick Wakeman and he appears to be every bit the equal. Yet there are moments of Jon Lord organ riffing and solos, coupled with an obvious tribute to Toto's David Paich in Far Cry.

The disparity of all these influences means that no two songs are the same, yet Mentaur has an instantly identifiable sound. I agree with the previous reviewer that the sound quality on some, but not all, tracks is poor. And yes, there are some cringeworthy lyrics. But there are also some monumentally powerful lyrics - Ed Lepper is clearly a man with a jaundiced view of life on this planet and his observations can hit you like a sledgehammer. The two songs Day of Wrath and The Last Battle must rank as two of the greatest prog epics ever!

In short this album is worth buying for the seminal re-defining of the epic, the guitar solos on Far Cry and Distant Ways and the unbelievably fast keyboard solo on Chasing Time (fastest ever...?).

The album is a retrospective of the band's career (they are no more, in fact haven't been since the early 90's) and is put together from demo tapes, so some of the material clearly suffers from poor production. But the quality of the songs always shines through. If ever a band deserved to have been recognised for redefining a genre it must have been Mentaur. Do them, and yourself, a favour and buy this album.