THE WAKE OF MAGELLAN

After years of listening to this CD it still is every bit as viable as it was then. Musically it is not as intricate as some, but it does not lack for technical prowess and downright good songwriting. It starts off with kind of a mellow vibe and then unexpectedly kicks in when you would least expect. It's got the good solid driving savatage guitars that you would expect, and I am still surprised by having two vocalists on it as they did with dead winter dead. Somehow they get it to work. It's like having two different actors or something. Guitar solos are very good, keys are surprisingly tasteful and very apparent. I still also love the "rounds" that Zak Stephens does, I can think of no one else but Queen who did or is still doing such things, but that's still VERY VERY cool to me. In fact thats why this and Dead Winter Dead are among my most prized albums.

Some highpoints for me are " Blackjack Guillotine", "The Hourglass", "Paragons of Innocence", And "Complaint in the System" and as a bonus when TheWake of Magellan finishes up you have Jon Oliva treating you to a few songs with just him and a piano. Very nice and it gets there at just about the right time, when you are kind of burned from so much bombastic guitars/drums/etc. So the journey continues for just a bit longer at a level you can take, almost like a cooldown after rigorous excercise it leaves you kind of exhilarated and refreshed. I would recomend this album for most anyone, although it is a bit heavy, I feel it has something for nearly any prog fan.