DECODING THE SOUL

Magnitude 9 still sound an awful lot like prog-metal veterans Fates Warning. On this album they begin to play more power metal than prog-metal. At times it feels like a nostalgic flashback to the late 80's style of power metal (Armored Saint comes to mind). It's still the same issue, the band still hasn't doesn't enough to differentiate themselves from groups like Fates Warning. They're definitely very good musicians, so they're still a good listen.

At, the same time, there are some signs of developing their own identity. Songs like To Find a Reason show a harder edge, especially the rhythm work surrounding the rather nice guitar solo. I definitely prefer the guitar solos on this album over their previous album, enough to give this album a 4 star rating. I still think this band has additional potential that they haven't quite tapped yet. Then again, it often takes great bands 3-4 albums to really hit their stride. Hopefully that is what we are witnessing with Magnitude 9. I'll definitely be interested to see where they go from here.