Search - Ten :: Name of the Rose

Ten's 2nd release falls mostly flat but does show promise.

Joe White | Layton, Utah United States | 06/19/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not that familiar with epic hard rock band Ten as I only own two of their albums. I've had their 1999 release, Spellbound, for some time, but recently I picked up one of their earlier CDs, The Name of the Rose. Like they do on Spellbound, Ten sound a lot like Whitesnake here. Unlike Spellbound, though, The Name of the Rose is a less inspired piece of work.1. "The Name of the Rose" - This song opens and closes with some solid acoustic guitar work and the riffs that fill most of the song are aggressive and engaging. Gary Hughes' baritone vocals are powerful making this one awesome rocker!
2. "Wildest Dreams" - A steady rocker, "Wildest Dreams" is very much in a Whitesnake vein. Vocalist Gary Hughes even sounds like Whitesnake front man David Coverdale at times. This song is another solid rocker.
3. "Don't Cry" - This song comes off as a bit too slick and cheesy so it never quite work for me. It's a cliched rocker.
4. "Turn Around" - A sappy ballad, "Turn Around" is just plain awful with it's boy band vocal harmonies and corny lyrics. If it wasn't for the heavy guitar parts in places, this song could easily be mistaken for something N'SYNC or the Backstreet Boys might inflict on us. Musical experimentation is fine, I guess, but this one does not work at all.
5. "The Pharaoh's Prelude: Ascension to the Afterlife" - This instrumental has a long mystical opening that eventually explodes into some furious guitar work.
6. "Wait for You" - Track five is really the intro to this song and it works. "Wait for You" is a pretty decent rocker even though the vocal melodies are a bit pedestrian. This isn't one of the highlights on the disc.
7. "The Rainbow" - Even though the lyrics are extremely cliched on this dark ballad/rocker, I still can't help but like this song with it's catchy vocal melodies and powerful vocals. It ain't great, but it works.
8. "Through the Fire" - Another mystical intro that shows the band experimenting with art-rock and middle-eastern flavorings, this quiet, mostly acoustical track showcases a band doing a ballad the right way. This song isn't sappy nor is it cliched as it moves in unexpected directions. The vocal melodies are beautiful yet unpredictable. While it doesn't quite make up for the dreadful "Turn Around", it does come close.
9. "Goodnight Saigon" - Sounding a lot like something Dokken might of come up with in the 80s, "Goodnight Saigon" is a fairly good rocker with some solid vocal melodies.
10. "Wings of the Storm" - Though this fast-paced rocker has some cheesy moments, the guitar work here is pretty good and makes up for most of the song's shortcomings.
11. "Standing in Your Light" - From the opening notes, you can tell you're in for an extremely sappy song as this ballad uses every cliche in the book. It even recalls the awful "Turn Around". Heaven help me, but this song is terrible.
12. "The Quest" - Another ballad with some fairly interesting vocal melodies, this tune doesn't quite take off. There are way too many sappy ballads on this disc.
13. "You're My Religion" - This raunchy, cliche-ridden rocker is as bad as the title suggests. The album ends on a mediocre note.Though Ten shows occasional flashes of brilliance, the album mostly falls flat. Fortunately, future releases from Ten would make up for this average early disc. I would only recommend this CD to the Ten diehards who feel the need to complete their Ten collection or to those of you who really like 80s hard rock bands like Whitesnake. If you want a taste of how good Ten is on later releases, pick up Spellbound or Babylon."