Pendragon began during the early 80's, around the same time as Marillion, Twelfth Night and IQ. Though considered `neo-progressive (in a symphonic-rock sort of way),' Pendragon has remained more creative and distinctive than the before mentioned bands. Pendragon was influenced by: Camel, Yes, early-Genesis, and Pink Floyd but later created their own mini-niche of NeoProg.
Pendragon began under the name of Zeus Pendragon, performing mostly cover tunes with many line-up changes.
In 1984 the band, with their shortened name of Pendragon, were discovered by Marillion's manager John Arnison.
The four song EP `Fly High Fall Far,' was released, then a full-length album called `The Jewel' followed in 1985. The album sports memorable and melodic guitar solos. The band's the line-up at the time was: of Nick Barrett (vocals, guitar), bassist Peter Gee, Nigel Harris (drums) and keyboardist Rik Carter. Though lacking the finer production skills of future albums, `The Jewel,' one of Pendragons best filled with energy & power. Song favorites from the album are still- "The Black Knight", and "Leviathan."
Soon after drummer Fudge Smith (Steve Hackett) and keyboardist Clive Nolan (Shadowland, Strangers On A Train, Arena) joined the band and Pendragon released a few singles and a live album titled `9:15 Live.'
1988's `Kowtow,' contained some shorter, simpler songs, including fan favorites- "The Haunting" and "Total Recall." Songwriter Nick Barrett began to take on some serious topics, including the immorality of war in the title track "Kowtow". The band began finding a devoted live following from their concert tours.
`The World,' released in 1991, found the band finding their own style, thanks to Barrett's unique and recognizable voice and his guitar work (influenced by axe-masters- Andy Latimer (Camel) and Mike Oldfield), which showcased his emotion and fluidity. The album's epic 22 minute song- "Queen of Hearts," proved that the band was not just another Marillion clone. During the ensuing tour, Pendragon released a raw-sounding live album- `The Very, Very Bootleg.'
1993's `The Window of Life,' showed greater use of melody and after a tour, the live recording- `Utrecht: The Final Frontier,' followed in 1995, with far better sound quality and production than earlier live recordings. The band performed in Los Angeles in 1995, for their first US concert.
`The Masquerade Overture,' released in 1996 (my favorite Pendragon album), adds more instrumental interplay (especially guitar and keyboards), some classical overtones and some better production. The cover artwork by Simon Williams is beautiful. It's a great album for anyone who is checking out Pendragon's music for the first time. The album sold over 60,000 copies, mostly on their own label, Toff Records. As a follow-up, the band released a four song EP, `As Good as Gold.' A live album (and concert video)- `Live in Kraków,' was released after the tour.
Because of Pendragon members working on various projects, the band didn't release a studio album from 1996-2000, but some compilation albums in various countries have been released. The Polish compilation album `The History: 1982-2000' (The band appeared for the first time on French TV in 2000), included new acoustic recordings of two Pendragon favorites and a video section.
`Not Of This World,' their first studio release since `The Masquerade Overture,' was released on April 2, 2001, it's concept draws directly from the experiences of guitarist/vocalist Nick Barrett's personal life over the last five years. A good album, the disk is full of warmth, epic drama and emotional soundscapes. It received solid reviews. The band will tour Europe until the end of the year and will follow with a world tour.
In 2002 the band released Acoustically Challenged, documenting an "unplugged" session with a number of the band's songs retooled for acoustic instruments, which was originally broadcast on Radio 3 Warsaw. This was considered an unusual move for a prog rock band, since progressive rock tends to focus a lot on the use of electronic synthesisers and electric guitars; however, the melodic qualities of the band's compositions proved to be well-suited to an acoustic context, and the album was reasonably successful. This heralded a new willingness to experiment on the part of the band, following a run of studio albums all broadly in the same vein as "The World". On 2005's Believe they took their music in a somewhat darker direction, causing a certain amount of controversy amongst their fans. 2008's Pure, which featured elements of progressive metal, refined the style of Believe and was very well received by the progressive rock fandom, being voted Album of the Year 2008 on DPRP.[3] On the community website progarchives.com Pure enjoyed the current "most popular album" spot for a period in 2008, and remains in the site's top 10 prog releases of 2008 (as voted by site users).
On 21 April 2009, Pendragon released a live album and DVD, Concerto Maximo, that was shot in Katowice on 13 October 2008. It was filmed and edited by Metal Mind. It was released in several versions - a 2 CD release, featuring just the audio from the show, a DVD, featuring the full show, and a DVD and 2 CD special edition, which was limited to 1000 copies.
In October 2010, the band recorded the follow-up to Pure, the album Passion which was released in the Spring of 2011. This was followed by Men Who Climb Mountains in 2014. Both albums continued the darker, heavier, more progressive metal-influenced direction of the band.
In April 2014 the band announced that they had parted ways with drummer Scott Higham for "personal reasons".[4] He was then replaced by Craig Blundell. In June 2015, Craig was replaced by Jan-Vincent Velazco.
Updates courtesy of the Pendragon Wiki page
Pendragon Discography:
The Jewel (1985)
Kowtow (1988)
The World (1991)
The Window of Life (1993)
The Masquerade Overture (1996)
Not Of This World (2001)
Believe (2005)
Pure (2008)
Passion (2011)
Men Who Climb Mountains (2014)
Masquerade 20 (Live) (2017)
