A must for any serious Ten fan.

As the world slowly emerged from the cloying tide of Grunge that had swept all before it in the early nineties, the face of the Hard Rock scene was dramatically different from what it had been just a few short years before. Most of the bands a whole generation had grown up in the late eighties had vanished, and those that did survive the onslaught found themselves with none existent media or label support. It was into this particularly harsh and unenviable landscape that Ten first emerged.

Once touted as "the great white hope" of UK Melodic Hard Rock, there's no doubt that they did lead the clarion call for a while, their knockout combination of deft musicianship, killer hooks and wonderfully addictive songs winning them deserved praise from all quarters. From a purely commercial perspective, they probably peaked with the glorious 'Spellbound' album at the tail end of the nineties, but as an admirer of both Ten the band and Gary Hughes as a song-writer, there's little to choose between their 'Ten' through to 'Babylon' five album run.

As the new millennium dawned, however, Ten's fortunes stalled somewhat, a series of line-up changes and a dearth of live activity ultimately seeing opportunity slip from their grasp. Hughes has, of course, kept the Ten flame alive with a string of unswervingly good albums throughout, but in the last couple of years activity on the Ten front seems to have ramped up once again.

As the title implies, 'Battlefield: The Rocktopia Records Collection' isn't a new studio album as such, but a rather tasty collection of everything the band has recorded thus far during their tenure with Rocktopia Records – and I do mean everything. Not only does it include the magnificent (and now out of print) 'Albion' and its svelte follow-up 'Isla De Muerta', but it also adds the recent 'The Dragon And Saint George' EP non album tracks, as well as exclusive Japan only bonus tracks 'Good God In Heaven What Hell Is This' and 'Assault And Battery'.

I may be a little partisan to the Ten cause, but from a personal perspective I think these last couple of studio albums represent some of the best work they've done since 'The Name Of the Rose' and 'The Robe'. Tracks like 'Albion Born', 'Die For Me', 'Karnak/The Valley Of The Kings' and 'The Dragon And Saint George' are quintessential Ten – soaring melodies born aloft on emotionally driven riffs... Hughes' song-writing at its bombastic best! A must for any serious Ten fan!

Dave Cockett