THE MAGIC OF SIN

Only the band's seventh studio album release in 20 years, they're re-trying an all-epic format with just three songs as they did on 2017's fairly highly-acclaimed Syndenes Magi. Go Trondheim!

1. "The Magic of Sin" (12:16) reminds me of some early classic blues rock band (or Brighton's DIAGONAL) re-working PINK FLOYD's "Time" (not including the Breathe reprise). (21.25/25)

2. "Down in Darkness Pt 2" (9:33) some pretty tedious and monotonous vocal lines (both lead and beckground) (sorry if the words are supposed to be interesting enough in and of themselves: they aren't) drive the first six minutes of this before the instrumentalists get their chance to entertain us. The band does a much better job with guitars and keys providing some pretty interesting sound expressions both within musical structures and as the music decays into chaos at the end. (17.33333/20)

3. "Down in Darkness Pt 3" (20:20) more classic-sounding blues rock jamming--sounding something like a cross between Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Thin Lizzy, only not quite as dynamic or sophisticated. The added percussion track in the thirteenth minute is just weird--followed by an over-extended space/FX passage (meant to impress exactly who? Come on: This is the 21st Century!) After over three minutes of suffering, the drums and organ try to push through the murk of the cyber-jam but are then pushed back into the MOTORPSYCHO Doldrums/Gyre/Flotsam. At the 18-minute mark the band emerges as if out of the bowels of the Earth as a laid-back folk rock band singing some kind of optimistic pop sing-a-long. (It's nice but so incongruous with the rest of the song/album--hard to rectify and then assign a rating to). (35/40)

Total Time 42:09

More often than not the music throughout this album plods along like a blues rock band experimenting about without goals or direction back in the 1960s. I imagine that even Led Zeppelin could run astray if their musical jams were to go on for over ten minutes or more (which may be why no one remembers "In My Time of Dying" or "Achilles Last Stand").

B-/3.5 stars; for fans/completionists only--or those prog lovers who can't get enough of the sounds and experimentation of the 1960s.