MAGNUM II

After really liking the debut album I was eager to hear more Magnum material but after hearing a couple of samples from Chase The Dragon and On A Storyteller's Night on Amazon I felt somewhat discouraged. Those albums seemed to have that irritating 80's production and the keyboard sound was just awful. Apparently the original keyboardist and backing vocalist Richard Bailey left the band after the bands second album and was replaced by Mark Stanway which could be one of the main reasons for my disliking of Magnums 80's direction especially since keyboards played such an importing part on Kingdom Of Madness.

So after all my research I went for Magnum II since, just like the debut, it was a late 70's album and featured Richard Bailey on the keyboards. I was also hoping that the band haven't changed much of their original formula but this turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking.

Let's get the most important thing out of the way. This album sounds nothing like the amazing debut! In fact I have a hard time deciding what it sounds like, at least one thing is for certain this album is a misstep. It starts with an electronic sounding intro of Great Adventure which I originally didn't think much about but after listening to the rest of the tracks I believe that it's one of the best tracks that Magnum II has to offer!

Magnum goes for epic sounding rock tunes and straight forward rock & roll but neither of the styles convince me. Only thanks to those few occasions when the band returns to the sounds of Kingdom Of Madness save this release from a complete disaster.

**** star songs: Great Adventure (4:54) The Battle (2:10) So Cold The Night (4:04)

*** star songs: Changes (3:15) If I Could Live Forever (4:02) Reborn (5:45) Firebird (4:47) All Of My Life (4:43)

** star songs: Foolish Heart (3:13) Stayin' Alive (3:22)