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Artist: Magnum |
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After a career spanning over 30 years you'd think a band like Magnum would find it a chore to come up with an album that would hopefully keep them being noted as one of the bands at the forefront of British Rock music over that period. Their latest album 'The Visitation' will obviously please the army of fans, who continue to give their unwavering support, but to someone who's just finding out about the band, there may be one or two who'd expected more. Opening up with 'Black Skies', it seems to take an age to begin properly, 40 seconds of barely audible cymbal tapping and keyboards, but when the song explodes into life, boy does it not! Tony Clarkin and ex-Thunder drummer Harry James together crash out of nowhere to startle you with the power they come up with. You can sense that there seems to be a new lease of life within the band, notably prominent in the title track, where Harry seems to have been let loose to do his utmost to pummel the life out of his drum kit. Rock radio favourite 'wild Angels' buries itself into your brain with its "whoa, whoa, whoa" chants and just wont go away, so someone in radio-land has done his / her job well, as the track to promote the album works well too. You always get that quintessential Magnum song on every album, the one that you can say describes magnum to a tee, and on this album it has to be 'Freedom Day'. Its soaring solo by Clarkin at the start, the brooding keyboards mixed in with that energetic drumming, it all shouts out ... "This is MAGNUM!!" It's their sound and has served them well over the years without any justification needed. Just to confirm all that 'Mother Nature's Final Dance' shows itself as one of those epic keyboard filled songs that the band and their fans thrive on, and of course Mr Clarkin gets his tuppence worth in on a quick solo as not to feel left out! One thing that becomes apparent and I hate to say this, is a bit worrying, is that Bob Catley sounds like he struggles on a few of the songs, his voice on the verge of tiredness and being forced at times. 'Doors To Nowhere' is slightly uncomfortable to listen to vocally, and the same could be said of 'The Last Frontier', where the bareness of the instrumentation only highlights some straining in his vocals. It still doesn't seem to put the man off, and you can tell he give his all on 'Midnight Kings', where powerful riffs n' drumming combine with a serene keyboard section that works so well, it ain't all doom and gloom after all. Brining the album to its close, 'Tonight's The Night' is another typical magnum song that this lot are just so good at and should never give up doing. To be brutally honest, apart from a couple of tracks, there's nothing really new or outstanding about 'The Visitation' to get excited over, so as before, anyone wanting to check out the band would be better off starting with something like the classic 'On A storytellers Night' and progressing from there. This should show just how important magnum are to British rock, and hopefully will stay there or thereabouts for a while to come, so if you get the chance check them live as well, you'll enjoy it, so go. Review by: Bob Baldwin |
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Tracklisting: 1.
Black Skies |
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All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall Zine unless otherwise stated. |
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