IMPENDING ASCENSION

Two years after the very good ''Hour of restoration'' the Gardner brothers return with their second album ''Impending ascension''.Bassist Hal Stringfellow Imbrie was again in the line-up along with guests Doane Perry (drums in ''Waterfront weirdos'') and Hope Harris (female voice in ''Virtual reality'').The album was originally released on Magna Carta, but it was distributed in Asia and several European countries via various record labels.

The progressive style of Magellan continues to expand with this release, which contains no less than three songs at about 11 minutes long, along with a few shorter pieces.Taking YES' pomposity, GENESIS' delicacy, RUSH'es power styles and KANSAS' heavier tunes, Magellan delivered efficient Progressive Rock with a fair dose of dynamics and some symphonic orchestrations with the virtuosic keyboards recalling compatriots CAIRO.The long tracks are filled with time signatures and tempo changes, sounding like a Symphonic Rock group going Heavy Prog with an Arena Rock attitude.It's typical 90's stuff with some of the tunes sounding a bit synthetic and the vocals coming through slight micorphone distortions, but the biggest problem comes from the annoying drum programming and the fake-sounding drumming.Magellan were a trully competetive band and the arrangements in here are quite convincing with endless changing climates and bombastic atmospheres, which are held down by the robotic sounds.Even so the band offers epic compositions with Classical orientations and some strong rockin lines, led by the constant use of synthesizers in an orchestral package and the powerful use of electric guitars, propelled by a marching bassist.Both ''Estadium Nacional'' and ''Waterfront weirdos'' became classics of the band, characterized by the weird QUEEN-meets-GENTLE GIANT vocal harmonies and the semi-symphonic arrangements with the complex breaks and the bombastic keyboards.

This is one of those albums you either fall in love with or hate it from the first listening.Lovers of natural instrumentation will have some hard time getting into Magellan's sound due to the synthetic drumming and orchestrations, those closer to 90's Prog will find this propably quite close to an essential release, all three long tracks are great compositions.The truth is somewhere in the middle.Recommended but not extraordinary by any means.