PURE

Pendragon's Pure is the last album of my current Pendragon marathon before I check out some other neo-prog bands recommended to me by the community. Now I normally go into these albums blind, but I knew that this album that it was unique among the bunch for taking a somewhat more metallic approach. It didn't take long for the band to make that point, and I think it's a good new approach for the best possible reason: now Barrett's voice has been aging a bit over the last few albums, but this slightly metallic sound fits perfectly with his deeper and raspy take on the Geddy Lee voice. My biggest concern, however, was whether or not the album would switch things up throughout or pretty much stay the same. There was really no way of me knowing, considering that they tried a few different techniques on the last album, Believe, but despite the positive reception some fans still felt alienated. I'm at least expecting the Floydian psychedelics; I'll be sorely disappointed if they don't have a good say in the album's sound.

I didn't get very much of the space rock or electronic synths prominent in the last album, but there are quite a few backing sound effects to make up for it. But I'm not sure how much that really adds to the album, especially when the first two tracks don't fully justify their own length, although the 9-minute Eraserhead certainly had more to work with in 9 minutes while the intro, Indigo, had less to work with in 14 minutes. It was a bit of a breather when the Comatose epic's first part started out with some aquatic production and piano, as well as psychedelic guitars with a faint Hindustani vibe to it. This one goes back to the lush and calming sound that opened up almost every song on The Masquerade Overture, but its aquatic production falls strangely in line with the metallic sound the album's gone for so far. Little things like rain sticks and harps come in after a couple of minutes, and suddenly I'm in the same world that many symphonic prog albums of the 70's brought me in, until they force me into some straight-up metal. This is the wild behavior I was hoping to see, although I was hoping the symphonic sound would last a little longer. At least it handled all of the elements in a beautifully proggy, eclectic and constantly melodic fashion. Pt. 1 might even be their best song.

Pt. 2 goes for a straightforward alternative sound with small bursts of prog seeping through, which I appreciate considering that it's different from the rest of the album and is well-produced and well-performed, basing its second half on the Pink Floyd side of things, focusing on production and atmosphere while maintaining its poppiness. Pt. 3 goes right into the classic softer side of Pendragon from the classic era, but with noisier ambient effects that fit this current album. Altogether, Comatose has become my favorite of the Pendragon epics as a result. The space rock and sci-fi vibes are lived up to with creativity to spare.

So now that the major creative splurge that justifies Pendragon's continuing existence is done, all that's left is The Freak Show and It's Only Me. And I had no idea where either song would go but I hoped it wouldn't lead to sounding like the first two songs because that would just mean there's less variety by the end. The Freak Show goes right into raw metal like something off of a Judas Priest album, and that side hadn't been seen side Pt. 1 of the blatantly diversified Comatose, so I'm fine with a 4-minute metal song, or at least much more metal-infused song, making its way onto the album. Or at least, that's what I thought. The album left that and went back to some standard Pendragon fare after the first thirty seconds. It was all very good for the first minute-and-a-half, and that's when the singing began. How would it hold up? Well, it didn't get back into the metal and the ending was repetitive, so this experiment started well, but didn't end properly. And finally, there's It's Only Me. It started with harmonica, which is fine, but would that be a focus or just another fancy intro to a typical Pendragon song? I'd say the instrumentation outweighs the melodies that Barrett's singing, but the constantly super-mellow vibe was a nice addition to the whole album. Its serenity nearly met GYBE levels for the first 3 1/2 out of the 8 minutes, until it went back to typical Pendragon fare with beautiful instrumentation and production but a vocal melody that needs work.

For the most part, I am VERY pleased with this album. There are flaws, but not enough to knock off a whole half- star. There's a creative splurge here that really works, and its new metallic vibe is a good step forward for the band as it mingles well with the Pendragon sound of the classic age. The epic in the center is probably the best thing they'd done thus far, and I think it would be unfair for me to say that I didn't consider this their best album because of it.

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