Artist: Magician
   Title: Tales Of The Magician
   Label: Dockyard 1

Hailing from Porto Alegre, Brazil, Magician are the latest in a seemingly endless stream of bands to jump on the sword-and-sorcery bandwagon. If done well, this type of metal can be very entertaining and uplifting, leaving you with a massive smile on your face in the knowledge that you’ve just had a damn good time listening to some epic metal anthems (take a bow Blind Guardian, Dio, Manowar, etc).

Unfortunately, Magician do not conjure up the same feelings and they’ve taken the even bigger risk of making a concept album, quite often the most dreaded two words to ever be put together in music (apart from ‘pop’ and ‘idol’ of course). This is often a very ambitious task to undertake and if you want to draw the listener into a story that encompasses an entire album, the songs themselves not only need to link together but nearly all of them need to really stand out so the listener does not drift off and return two tracks later wondering what the hell is going on and this is a difficult thing to accomplish.

Alas, Magician don’t achieve this. It’s doubtful that many people are going to care that much whether or not ‘Zhaldor’ has freed his homeland ‘Zelgian’ from an underworld terror if the songs don’t stand up and make you pay attention, especially when those songs sound like a band failing to emulate Dream Theater with lyrics that have seemingly come out of some sort of Dio/Helloween Power-Metal generator. You’re actually left a little surprised that vocalist Dan Rubin doesn’t shout “look out” at the end of at least one song.

But this is not to say that the record is without its positives. For sure, there is no doubting the quality of the bands musical talents, particularly guitarists Renato Osorio and Christiano Schmitt and there’s no argument that Rubin does have a great voice. And in some of the songs, there’s certainly enough musical ideas coming out to catch your interest (is that Pan Pipes I hear ‘Minstrel’s Domain’ and a bass solo in ‘Siege of Zelgian’? I believe it is) but unfortunately, that alone is not enough to hold your interest for very long.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t terrible by any means and give me Magician any day over the current large amounts of screamo rubbish out there, but compared to Magician’s peers within the same genre and what they’re clearly trying to achieve, the record just doesn’t seem to stand up when there are plenty of others doing it so much better.

Best tracks – ‘Minstrel’s Domain’, ‘Siege of Zelgian’

Review by: Adam G

Tracklisting:

  1. Let The Spell Begin (Intro)
  2. Prime Evil
  3. Underworld Terror
  4. Sandstorm
  5. Terminal Day
  6. Dark Ritual (Hear Your Master's Call)
  7. Minstrel's Domain
  8. Siege Of Zelgian
  9. Crossing The Last Gate
10. Late The Harmony Endure

 

                  

 

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