Marillion - An Hour Before It's Dark

Often referred to as the leaders of the neo-progressive movement of the early 80s, Marillion is a great deal more than that. They are purveyors of soulful, powerful, and deeply-moving music, with a long-standing reputation of impressive live shows and an imposing, faithful and loyal global fan base. "It would seem that much of the foreboding in our last album FEAR turned out to be well-founded," notes Steve Hogarth. "For this one I set out to avoid writing about the pandemic at all costs because I thought every other artist would be. When push came to shove though, it was impossible not to reference it. It has become part of life so there's no ignoring it creatively just as there's no ignoring it, period. "However, the pandemic isn't our biggest problem, the mass extinction and the climate-gone-mad is where we really need to blow our economies - personal and national," he adds. "We're going to have to save the earth whether we're hippies or billionaires. That's got to be our number 1 priority. We're gonna have to be hard on ourselves. It was this thought that shaped the overall lyrical arc of this album. Despite the bleak concept, musically it's rich and perhaps our most upbeat work for many years. There is also a love song to Leonard Cohen and a song about a big diamond."