 |
 |
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
REVIEWS: MAGELLAN Hundred Year Flood back to artists page Discography • Audio • Tour Dates • Links Released Sept 10, 2002 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Magellan's first album since 1997's Test of Wills is an emotional roller-coaster ride, a prog opus that tells the story of the death of Trent and Wayne Gardner's older brother Jack in the Vietnam war back in 1966 at the young age of 21. The fact that Trent was only four at the time of his brothers passing makes this story all the more poignant and intriguing. While some may say that Vietnam tales have been done to death in music, it is refreshing to hear a progressive rock take on this tragic war. Trent Gardner conjures up all the necessary emotions in the lyrics of "The Great Goodnight", especially the feeling of loss, of questions of a little boy who never knew his brother, and the adult Trent who little by little over the years pieced the whole tragic occurance together after his family refused to revisit Jack's death. Usually on a Magellan recording, one will talk more of the brilliant musical exploits, but here the instrumentation takes a backseat to the powerful, heart-wrenching story. That's not to say that there is a lack of red-hot playing mind you. Trent's ELP influenced keyboards are all over the place here, as is Wayne's heavy rhythm guitar work. Guest guitarist George Bellas handles the lead work, Robert Berry contributes some guitar and bass, as does Tony Levin. Ian Anderson throws in some masterful flute work on the short instrumental "Family Jewels", which serves as a precursor to Trent's raging synthesizer work. "Brothers Keeper" finishes off the CD with a Kansas-type flair, featuring passages of heavy guitar and wild solos which are complemented by some pleasant acoustic guitar and percussion. Yes, there is a real drummer on the album, that being NYC session man Joe Franco. This is a landmark release for Magellan, and is worth the price for the 34-minute "The Great Goodnight" alone. Perhaps this CD is less heavy, and maybe a little bit less complex than previous works, but there is no doubt that it is the most mature and inspirational release yet from this band. – SeaOfTranquility.org –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Magellan lead by extreme talented Trent Gardner, who got famous among prog music listeners for putting together great all-star progressive albums as Explorer's Club and producing and guest appearing on many progressive albums including Steve Walsh's latest, is back with their new record Hundred Year Flood after almost 5 years of hiatus (last album was 1997 Test Of Wills). It's almost hard to believe that Trent Gardner has time to work on Magellan's new material while juggling his other big projects. Trent Garner on vocals, keys and of course trombone with Wayne Gardner on guitars/bass and welcoming Joe Franco on drums/percussion with few other big name guests including Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Liquid Tension), Robert Barry and George Bellas, Hundred Year Flood is packed with monstrous prog music. The album consists of only 3 songs. The first song "The Great Goodnight," which has 13 sections, begins with Gentle Giant like vocal harmonies and progresses into mellower piano/vocal section than the Deep Purple like organ kicks in and the rest is history. The great transitions of Pink Floyd like moments to Dream Theater like hard rocking sections to Genesis and Yes like classic prog rock are melodic and smooth making them enormous and not to mention his production is quite a superb. Intense leads, cool vocal melodies, odd time grooves gets the tune rockin' for over 30 minutes making this tune perhaps the best Magellan to this date. "Family Jewel" is a beautiful instrumental featuring great Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson on flute and Trent Gardner on keys. "Brother Keeper" is a cool rockin' tune with more fresh progressive stuff, heavy guitars, cool keys, rockin' grooves and nice changes. Magellan always put out some immense progressive music and they have done it again. Any prog-rock fans will certainly dig this album especially if you liked Trent Gardner's work on such albums like Explorer's Club's Age of Impact (be sure to check out their new one Raising The Mammoth), and Leonardo the Absolute Man. You have to check this album out and if you haven't checked their older stuff make sure you do that too because they are also filled with great music by the talented musicians. – Take Out Music –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Magellan is Gardner's home base, as stated above, and this album also has very lengthy pieces, with the longest clocking in at 34:27! The musical core: Trent on vocals/keys/trombone, Wayne Gardner on guitars/bass, and Joe Franco on drums/orchestral percussion (note his powerful double bass drum work!). Ian Anderson's flute, Tony Levin's bass, Robert Berry's guitars and bass, and George Bellas' guitars ably stretch the boundaries. With even longer pieces of music, we will forego naming fave cuts here, as well. Except to note that Ian Anderson's flute can lift almost any song it is featured on. Here, he takes a shiny ride on the instrumental "The Family Jewels." The aforementioned album's feeling of ennui is brought home to a more personal level on the Magellan album, which deals with the death of the Gardner's brother in Viet Nam, 1966. Listeners will find both albums fulfilling if they enjoy complex music played with taste, verve, and even occasional restraint. Those who prefer the instrumental side of this wide-ranging genre will prefer Explorers Club; but the players on both albums have chops for days! – Sun Herald Marquee –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– I first discovered Magellan in the discount rack of a local record shop in the 90s. All I could say about Hour Of Resurrection was WOW! They seemed to take a side step with the overly technical Impending Ascension. Magellan got back on track with a harder edged Test Of Wills. Then something neat happened. It seems Trent and the boys got bit by the concept bug, which is clearly evident in the Explorer's Club efforts and Trent's solo project, Leonardo. Now we have the band's new effort, Hundred Year Flood. Like a good wine, this band just gets better with age. This new release is fathered by Trent himself and is a memorial to his late brother Jack, who met his end in Vietnam in May of 1966 during an operation in zone D, northwest of Saigon. This hints the album would be a sad, dark angry effort, but that's not the case. It does sound angry at times, but deals more with coming into acceptance with the way things really are and how powerless we are to change them. The opening track starts with a skilled acapella opening, the likes I haven't heard since "Leave It" from Yes. "The Great Goodnight" continues into a harder edged sound that is so characteristic of Magellan, but they use some nice drum rhythms not heard on previous efforts. And yes, Trent does incorporate a trombone solo into this ever-changing 35-minute track. "Family Jewels" opens with a spirited flute solo by the great Ian Anderson, and flows into a dynamic keyboard instrumental. The track alone makes the CD worth having, especially if you like the ELP Hammond B-3 sound intermixed with creative synthesizer sounds. "Brother's Keeper" is cynical track about the general human struggle of whether to help fellow humans or to just not get involved, or that what this writer interpreted the lyrics to say. In any case, this ties in nicely with the concept of the album. I'll leave it up to you to figure out why Magellan named this CD, Hundred Year Flood. Don't pass this release up if you are a Magellan fan. It's well thought out, beautifully recorded and mastered, and has just plain excellent vocal work.. Even my eleven-year-old son picked up on this one and won't take it out of his boom box. I can't wait to hear their next future effort. – Prog4You.com –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Click here to order Hundred Year Flood, and other releases from Magellan. |
||||||||||||