British progressive rock veterans Marillion is a band that I completely overlooked for the better part of my 36 or so years as a music lover. Like most, my first introduction to Marillion was the somewhat “hit” song “Kaleigh” from their 1985 album Misplaced Childhood. I was not a fan. I found the music too “weird” for me, a fledgling metalhead, and their vocalist Fish had a voice that grated on my nerves. Over the years, Marillion was a band that didn’t even appear on my radar again until 2016’s F.E.A.R (Fuck Everyone and Run) with vocalist/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Steve Hogarth.
F.E.A.R was not only a game-changer album for me, but it was an album that changed my life as a music fan in a way very few bands have done. The album’s concept of the “every man for himself” philosophy reflected the state of humanity at that moment touching on subjects such as political separation of the people as well as an “irreversible political, financial, and environmental storm” as stated by vocalist/lyricist Steve “H” Hogarth. F.E.A.R was an album that moved me, made me cry, and gave me a sense of optimism. I felt that F.E.A.R could not be matched, and the thought of even Marillion trying to follow it up seemed impossible. Well, Marillion proved me wrong and did the unthinkable, and then some with their 2022 release An Hour Before It’s Dark.
Where F.E.A.R was condemning the government and bureaucratic blindness of the U.K., An Hour Before It’s Dark takes on a global theme of life in the midst and hopeful survival in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. An Hour Before It’s Dark is comprised of a series of suites: Be Hard on Yourself (I-III), Reprogram the Gene (I-III), Sierra Leone (I-V), and Care (I-IV). Each song within the suites offers a beautiful tone of anger, optimism, and hope that we, as a united world, can move towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
Life within the global pandemic still saw us plagued by many of the world issues that we had pre-pandemic such as extreme materialism, the struggles of those facing sexual identity, and global self-destruction. In Part I of Invincible, Marillion addresses the issue of people dealing with sexual identity (I don’t want to be a boy. I don’t want to be a girl. I want to be happy. I want to be clever. In no pain whatsoever) while also reminding us that Global Warming/Climate Change is still very much something that isn’t going away (“I seen the future! It ain’t orange, it’s green. I been listening to Greta T. Begins with a letter C (Covid). The cure’s coming at us. The cure is the disease.)
There is so much behind An Hour Before It’s Dark that I don’t think I could write any less than ten pages touching on the subject matter. Musically, An Hour Before It’s Dark stretches beyond any boundaries or expectations anyone may have about Marillion. “H” ‘s vocals are riddled with pain, intensity, and conviction in a way that commands the attention of all who are listening with natural ease as opposed to contrived, forced energy. The songs are melodic complex yet easy to digest even for the non-prog rock listener. It’s an album that I wish didn’t have to come out, but I’m glad it did.
An Hour Before It’s Dark is a time capsule that captures a tragic time in our world that will be referenced for many generations to come. I can only hope that it won’t be a relevant set of topics, but the way the world has been, I believe that it will be. Marillion has found a way to take the most tragic and ugly of situations and offer us some hope and optimism along with thought-provoking, soul-crushing lyrics and music that hit reached deep into me and grabbed parts of my heart that had never been touched by music before. Powerful, painful, beautiful, sad, and horrifying. That is The Hour Before It’s Dark.
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