AS ON A DARKLING PLAIN

The progressive symphonic rock band TEN JINN was founded in 1991. Their second album, partly influenced by the Anne Rice's vampire books "The Vampire Lestat" and "Queen of the Damned", is released on the Swedish label Record Heaven. Their complex music is a mixture of GENESIS, GENTLE GIANT, GLASS HAMMER, JETHRO TULL,QUEEN, SAGA and SPOCK'S BEARD, with a powerful singer, backed up by excellent backing vocals. The ex-HAPPY THE MAN guitarist Stan Whitaker is doing a guest appearance. The album has strong melodies, an outstanding production with great dynamics, skilful song writing and many instrumental passages. The highlights are the 40-minute title track "As On A Darkling Plain" and "I can't see". This could be a future classic. Highly recommended!

When I first heard this album, I couldn't quite put my finger on what I found so familiar with it while at the same time it sounded so unique. Blending hard rock, medieval folk and QUEEN-like choruses so shamelessly surely took some guts and I figured I had to grant the CD a few more spins. The results were well worth it as there are mighty strong tunes, here, some solid musicianship and some incredible melodies; even the slightly abrasive vocals fit in somehow (John Paul Strauss sounds like a cross between Michael Sadler and Peter Hammill). Finally, the church organ, the harpsichord and choruses give the album an especially haunting feel.

The best part is by far the epic title track, an 8-piece suite of energetic rock that ends with "Run Away", a track which features a strong SAGA-like instrumental break. I also hear traces of JETHRO TULL and GENESIS on many of these tracks but especially on the bouncy "Byzantine Fire" (reminiscent of "Trick of the Tail"). As for the track "Darkling Plain" itself, it is as perfect a blend of JETHRO TULL and HAPPY THE MAN as you're likely to hear. Come to think of it, I heard HAPPY THE MAN just about all over the album (especially on "I Can't See"), albeit a much rockier version of them.

If you give iit a chance to grow on you, you'll find "As on a Darkling Plain" an arresting album. It assails you with choppy beats and almost gothic vocals, then wraps you up with magnificent symphonic movements. It definitely makes me want to seek out TEN JINN's other material.

Hilarious!!!

Man, I listened to this album with a friend of mine and I laughed harder than I have in a long time (as did she). Don't get me wrong, this isn't a terrible album. The musicianship is high, the compositions are fairly well thought out and arranged, and the recording quality is pretty good. But man, does John Paul Strauss take himself seriously? In some ways this is almost a parody of prog. An elaborate, grandiose 40 minute epic with suitably overblown titles for each section. Some complex playing and somewhat varied instrumentation. All based on an Ann Rice vampire book. I was expecting something kind of dark and menacing. Instead, I get a fairly bouncy composition, with some darker parts that border on the ridiculous, filled to the brim with Strauss' odd baritone. There is just something about the melodies and vocals on this album that I find humorous. And the pictures in the booklet..........well, lets just say they add to the only enhance the absurdity of it all. Now, most prog heads will notice that Stan Whitaker plays on this album. I really can't imagine what prompted him to do this gig, but it doesn't really matter since it's pretty hard to tell he is on here. The few times where I hear a distinct guitar solo, it doesn't strike me as his better work. The other tracks on the album are quite similar musically to the epic, and are mostly even more ridiculous. I mean, writing a song about a rock? Seriously, the song Rock conveys the inner thoughts of........a rock. Wow. I can only assume this was meant to be funny, which makes me think that maybe the whole album is meant to be funny? If so, they don't announce it.

Anyway, on the whole, this is probably not really worth your time. It can be quite funny, and the music is not exactly terrible. As I said before, these are good musicians who play well together. The compositions, while not varying much in style, are well enough written and sometimes are borderline adventurous (mostly in the 40 minute epic). For myself, I may pull it out again if I need a good laugh. I rate it two stars purely on musical terms, but from what I can tell it is their best album so "fans" probably have it already. If you really just want to take a wild chance on a fairly obscure purchase, or are a rabid Stan Whitaker fan and must have everything he ever played on, then you may want this in your collection. Otherwise, scratch this one off your list.