ON GOES THE QUEST (MASTER MAGICIAN II)

Ever heard an album that is for about 2/3 stunning and for 1/3 almost embarrassingly cheesy ? I'm afraid I have found one here. The stunning part is the concept (musically) as well as the instrumental handling. The cheesy aspects are the lyrics and the vocals. And then I mean both the vocals of W.J. Maryson and Rosemarije Laurens. They simple both can't execute the main aspect of singing and that is hold tune. Fortunately Rosemarije only sings in two songs but Maryson himself is the lead vocalist so there we have a bit of a problem. And it becomes immediately clear in second track Master Magician.

Right after this annoying "opener" (the actual opener is a short instrumental) we get a great example of the stunning part. Impressive keys by the same Mr. Maryson turn the feeling around for me and in fact these switches go on for the entire 68 minute release. Just as you think it's simply a poor effort by Dutch amateurs (caused by lyrics and vocals) you get tossed 180 degrees in opinion by marvelous instrumental contributions. Not just by Maryson with his excellent keyboardplay but also by a great Chris van Hoogdalem on guitar and as icing on the cake Dutch prog hero Thijs van Leer (Focus) with fantastic and enchanting flute passages.

So that leaves me doing a bit of maths for the overall rating. It's 2/3 * 4,5 (stars) added with 1/3 * 2,5 resulting in 3,83 which we can safely round up to 4 stars. Because the concept works very well despite the lyrics which well, let's say simply don't work for me. If you make lyrics about a magician you'd better do it as Rush did it in 1975 with The Necromancer. These lyrics are captivating and intriguing but the lyrics on this album sound a bit childish and therefore cheesy. But in the end the instrumental bits and pieces are so wonderful that this wins the internal battle/struggle for me and make me decide for the four stars. I'm curious what other Prog Reviewers would make of this one. Anybody ?