Many of you will be familiar with the background to this, the 8th or 9th studio album from Pendragon, one of the survivors of the 80's prog rock revival.

A combination of the Credit Brunch and the rise of illegal downloading has already seen several bands call it a day, with the fall in income meaning that being a musician can no longer be a full time occupation in the prog rock world. In the face of this, bands have taken differing approaches. Fish, for example, made his last album available only thru his website for six months, while Marillion pre sold theirs to everyone who was going to buy it, and them have it away free to everyone else in return for an email address and a shed load of publicity.

Pendragon have followed the Fish route. The first 200 copies were "given away" to fans who attended Megadaze, a two day Album Release Party, held in September, a whole fortnight before the official release date. From then onwards, it is only available from the website or from the merch desk on tour. Each copy comes with an open letter from Nick Barrett imploring the purchaser not to upload the album onto the web.

But enough of the Panorama intro, onto the music.

First track Indigo starts off with the atmospheric guitar intro before hitting you with one of the chunkiest riffs you'll have heard from the fingers of Nick Barrett. Straight away you can see how the current musical landscape, and the introduction of drummer Scott Higham into the band have given them a harder and more dangerous sound. When Joe Crabappletree joined after the last album, Believe, it gave the rest of them a well needed kick up the arse and freshened up their sound. Scott's introduction has pushed them forward once again. The song reminds me of something of Fish's 13th Star album, Manchmal or the song about the turtle perhaps. It's the hard edge to it all. But it's not all dark, there is some shady Gilmouresk guitar in there too . Meanwhile Peter Gee's bass guitar combines well with the drums. And the people who criticized the lack of keyboards on Believe are going to be much happier this time around as Clive Nolan puts in a decent shift throughout. This 13 minute epic, which is about the "aura" that surrounds us, which starts off indigo and changes colour as we lose our innocence, is an excellent way to open the album.

The nine minuter Eraserhead carries on the heavy path, starting with some thumping Gee bass. This track should cheer up Marillion fans disillusioned with their recent output. THIS is modern Progressive Rock. The classic 80's influences mixed with the harder edge of bands such as Porcupine Tree. Nine minutes long with enough twists to stop it feeling like it's outstayed it's welcome, yet also allowed to breathe, while it slags off Political Correctness and careless liberalism. It takes its name from the David Lynch film of the same name.

Comatose comes next, a three part tale of a kid leaving home and losing his innocence, turning into/ some drug riddled junkie in New York, before going postal (could it be just coincidence that just this very week a kid went postal in Finland? Probably, as I don't think there was anyone from Finland at Megadaze). He then turns up in some cult, gets brainwashed, but then breaks free of his conditioning. The first part, View From The Seashore, starts off with Clive tinkling on the ivories while Nick sings, then it descends / ascends into a bout of frantic riffery and drum poundery before chilling out again in a 70's Genesis way for the final section. The second part, Space Cadet, is a more straightforward rockier number, apart from the chilling 'going postal' minute. Home And Dry rounds off Comatose, and features the first recorded Pendragon swearword! In 30 years? Oh what has Scott brought into this band... Anyway, this track updates the classic Pendragon sound. When you listen to this, you can hear the melodies from previous times bubbling beneath the surface, like a stew or thick prog soup, with what sound like movie soundclips as crispy croutons, floating on the surface.

The familiar opening to The Freakshow comes next. Familiar, that is if you've listened to our Proggy Style Radio Show recently, or looked at ourYouTube Of The Week. It's heavy, though not in an Opeth way. It does contain the curious "I touched my hand and thought of my Californian wife" life. Hmm, this years "We talked muffin" perhaps? Anyway, it's good'n'heavy, and at four and a half minutes, just the right length.

It's Only Me closes the album in customary Pendragon chilled out style. An emotive harmonica intro from Nick's neighbour Rod Crisp sets the scene for a laid back track, finishing off with a long instrumental section featuring an emotional solo from Nick.

The "Special Edition" comes in a deluxe booklet along with an 85 minute DVD progumentary that shows the genesis of the album, with Nick, Clive and Peter talking their way thru it all. Some Kinda Monster it ain't, but Nick does go all Les Dennis in places.

Nick and the boys have now completely brought their sound up to date, and, with the help of Karl Gloom,  have produced an exceptional album.

If you' ve written off Pendragon in the past, then this is probably the right time to give them another try.

And show your support for the future of the prog music we all love by buying the album from www.pendragon.mu rather than downloading it from some hookey site.