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MAGELLAN

Heavy Prog • United States


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Magellan picture
Magellan biography
Formed in San Francisco, California, USA in 1985 - Disbanded in 2016

MAGELLAN represents the second wave of sonic explorers, those who sailed in spirit with the most storied of the prog rock pioneers (e.g., GENESIS, KANSA, RUSH, YES) during their youth and now seek to make the journey in practice. At the helm of MAGELLAN are brothers Trent (vocals/keyboards) and Wayne Gardner (guitars), who with bass player Hal Stringfellow Imbrie released their debut album : "Hour of Restoration", in 1991. (Their debut led off with a five-part suite entitled "Magna Carta") An historical concept album about England, it was followed by the similar-sounding "Impending Ascension".

MAGELLAN returned in 1997 with "Test of Wills", which represented a slight departure from the band's original sound (though the group, which now includes drummer Brad Kaiser, remained intact). In 2002, the Gardners released the ambitious "Hundred Year Flood", dedicated to the brother they lost in the Vietnam War.

Though not a prolific band, MAGELLAN's well crafted and ambitious efforts have made them something of a flagship among prog rock's second armada of artists.

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MAGELLAN discography


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MAGELLAN top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.39 | 125 ratings
Hour Of Restoration
1991
3.71 | 149 ratings
Impending Ascension
1993
3.53 | 133 ratings
Test Of Wills
1997
3.52 | 96 ratings
Hundred Year Flood
2002
3.43 | 95 ratings
Impossible Figures
2003
3.12 | 100 ratings
Symphony For A Misanthrope
2005
2.80 | 83 ratings
Innocent God
2007

MAGELLAN Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

MAGELLAN Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

MAGELLAN Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 8 ratings
Inert Momentum (Singles 2013-2015)
2015

MAGELLAN Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

3.14 | 7 ratings
Dust In The Wind
2012
3.17 | 6 ratings
Keep It
2012
3.00 | 2 ratings
The Better Suite
2013
3.71 | 7 ratings
Good To Go
2013
3.00 | 2 ratings
Confessor's Overture II - Hymn for a Heathen Finale 2015
2015

MAGELLAN Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Impending Ascension by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 1993
3.71 | 149 ratings

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Impending Ascension
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by Menswear
Prog Reviewer

1 stars *Sigh*

My mom told me not to laugh at others misfortune, and she's right. So when it comes to appreciate an album, sometimes only sarcastic lines comes to you. That's never good. So I'll be gentle.

Why do I keep lurking at Magellan: they have super album art. Just beautiful, colorful and attractive. Positive: they have a good eye. I'm a sucker for great art cover, whaddaya want? I'm a softie, hoping that the gift matches the wrapping paper.

What grinds my gears: their lack of coherence. It's not the technique; they can play, and how. They're actually very good players.

Coherence: writing songs that makes sense, a sense of going somewhere. Gentle Giant are complex, but their songs gel. Magellan songs are complex, but they change direction every 15 seconds. So you feel like listening to snippets of songs, a myriad of segments that were never developped into a full idea. Just bits and more bits of songs bouncing frivolously hoping to create a 'song', leaving you with the feeling of being lost in a sea of over-enthusiasm.

Trent Gardner singing: a monotonous line without emotion or ondulation, so whack you'll roll your eyes.

Once again, it's NOT deprived of qualities: some (too quick) parts are bombastic and catchy, but them spectre of boredom lurks again, and again.

 Test Of Wills by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 1997
3.53 | 133 ratings

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Test Of Wills
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by Menswear
Prog Reviewer

1 stars Oh Lord have mercy.

This is still part of my Magna Carta plunge. 'Laughing at people is wrong' my mom told me at tender age and I frankly believe it's true. But did you ever had a friend who really thought he 'had it' musically? Common courtesy just tells you to nod and smile, saying gently: 'Wow, you really put some efforts into this!'....and then roll your eyes discreetly.

Singing is fun (we all do it on a daily basis) but singing correctly is tough. Writing a song is reasonnably reachable (Hootie and the Blowfish did it somewhat) but making it believable is something else. So Magellan are telling us that they can sing and write. Ok Okay. Yet again, Magellan's records seem to be plagued with the same old faults over and over again.

Laughing while listening a record is never a good, never. Unless it's Monty Python. The lame drum solo, the overuse of vocal layers and of a worn palette of colors, the cringe worthy singing and the true abscence of cohesion in song structure is taking it's toll. And trombone. Trombone is not a good idea for them.

How can I say this without being rude? I don't think there's enough alcohol in Canada to get through this.

 Hour Of Restoration by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 1991
3.39 | 125 ratings

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Hour Of Restoration
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by Menswear
Prog Reviewer

2 stars The birth of Magna Carta.

Seems like the days before the Internet where the Middle Ages. How did people got informations on anything? Where did you look for information on music? Yes, there was Rolling Stone Magazine, Spin, Kerrang! and Rock n' Folk but they mainly focused of mainstream releases. Once I bought a Rush tribute record from Magna Carta and they gave me a little catalog where I saw bands I never, ever, ever heard before: Cairo? Shadow Gallery? Ice Age? Enchant? Tempest? Magellan? What are those? Hey hold on, there's a tribute record to Jethro Tull?!?

To a young kid who only knew Rush, Magna Carta opened a door to a whole new palette of colors and textures. These records where not available at HMV or Sam the Record Man but only by import. The Magna Carta logo became a beacon of new and exciting stuff only known by really savvy musical nerds. And to think how much energy, time and money the founders put into it, you have to respect the work they did.

I'm always a sucker for nostalgia and great artwork, so the cover immediately grabbed my attention. I also decided to plunge back into my college years by digging into the first prog rock label I ever knew. For better or worse? Well, Magna Carta is known for hosting the Good (Shadow Gallery, Enchant), the Bad (too many) and the Ugly (tribute albums we don't care about).

I already got a taste of Magellan 10 years ago...and I remember now why I didn't dug further. If I was in 1992 and didn't knew anything else, I would have been over the moon with it. But now, that voice, that annoying way of singing of Trent Gardner is really shaking up my soda, to be polite. It's hard to describe but, it feels like the guy is trying too hard. He's not yelling but he's giving way too much all the time. In fact, Magellan IS TRYING TOO HARD all the frickin' time. I read somewhere 'they need to calm down'. It's spot on!! They really do need to take a chill pill.

The music is very americanish: Styx and Kansas (ugh...) are their fuel of choice and I frankly could use a bit more nuance in their songwriting. It's not that it's bad (some segments really kicks ass), it's just too intense; and it's even not prog metal! I can name hundred prog metal albums with more subtlety! It tries too hard to be entertaining and unfortunately goes the other way.

Magellan is like that little book of jokes that made you laugh so much when you were a kid: it isn't funny anymore because you just grew out of it.

 Test Of Wills by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 1997
3.53 | 133 ratings

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Test Of Wills
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator Symphonic Team

3 stars Explorers club

In 1995 and 1996 - between the release of their second album Impending Ascension and this, their third album Test Of Wills - Magellan was involved in the creation of a series of tribute albums to major classic progressive Rock bands. One of these was a tribute to Jethro Tull, and the Gardner brothers contribution to that album seems to have had a powerful influence on Magellan's own music on Test Of Wills. Several songs on this album, perhaps most notably Walk Fast, Look Worried and Jacko, have taken on a distinct Ian Anderson flavour in the song-writing and vocal style, and flute is even added to the palette of Magellan. Preaching The Converted is however in the style of (Magellan's version of) Genesis' Mama.

Another notable change in the band's sound for this album is the addition of real drums, here played by Brad Kaiser. Also, this album is much heavier than previous albums and more guitar oriented and overall less keyboard dominated. While adding real drums is clearly a step forward for the band, it is not matched by the quality of the material. The songs on Test Of Wills are less memorable than those of both the previous two albums and the subsequent one. Maybe they were saving up their best material for the excellent Explorer's Club album Age Of Impact which was released the following year?

Test Of Wills has its moments, but Magellan did better elsewhere. It is an acceptable album, but without doubt my least favourite of Magellan's four albums on the Magna Carta label. My favourites being 2002's Hundred Year Flood and the 1991 debut Hour Of Restoration, both of which have stronger material than what can be found on Test Of Wills.

 Impending Ascension by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 1993
3.71 | 149 ratings

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Impending Ascension
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator Symphonic Team

3 stars Circumnavigation

Magellan's second album appeared in 1994. Most commentators seem to describe it as a natural continuation of their debut, 1991's Hour Of Restoration, but while there are obvious similarities between the two albums, I personally also see important differences. Many also regard Impending Ascension as an improvement over the debut, but I instead prefer Hour Of Restoration. I find the debut to be a more coherent album, no doubt owing a lot to its conceptual nature, while Impending Ascension comes across more as a collection of unrelated songs.

The track that most resembles the music of the debut is Storms And Mutiny which is a song about Ferdinand Magellan's famous circumnavigation of the Earth (and obviously from where the Gardner brothers have taken their band name). Including No Time For Words, which is an instrumental introduction to the same, it runs to some 14 minutes and readily invites comparison with the equally epic Magna Carta from Hour Of Restoration. In my view, Magna Carta is the better of the two.

Another long track, and the best of this album, is album opener Estadium Nacional which blends the sound of 80's Yes (90125, Big Generator) with the complexities of 70's Yes, and adds some heavy riffs to that and a chorus that reminds me of Boston! Waterfront Weirdos is instead very much in the style of Marillion, with Fish-like vocals and all. Doane Perry of Jethro Tull fame helps out on drums on that one (but the other tracks still have programmed drums). Shorter songs like Songsmith, Virtual Reality, and Under The Wire are not bad at all.

I like this album, but unlike Hour Of Restoration, after hearing Impending Ascension, I feel saturated and have no real desire to start the album again. Recommended, but not as good as Hour Of Restoration.

 Hour Of Restoration by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 1991
3.39 | 125 ratings

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Hour Of Restoration
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator Symphonic Team

4 stars Restoring the progressive spirit

Magellan was founded in 1985 and consists of brothers Trent and Wayne Gardner. This debut album was released in 1991 on the freshly initiated Magna Carta label. The album opens with a nearly 15 minute track called precisely that, Magna Carta, and is about the well-known charter of rights. (A side note: Rick Wakeman opened his album Softsword with an equally epic track devoted to the same topic, recorded around the same time!) Progressive Rock was at the start of a revival at this time and releases such as this one was part of that restoration of the genre.

Heavy Prog is probably the most suitable categorization of this band, but there are elements of Neo-Prog and Prog Metal as well. Influences are drawn from a variety of sources - including some of the usual suspects from the classic era of progressive Rock - but this is not retro or derivative. The sound of early Magellan is dominated by modern keyboards, heavy guitar riffs, and anthemic lead and harmony vocals, done by the Gardner brothers themselves who are obviously very talented and good at what they do. I like the energy and sense of urgency of this album.

Being basically a two man band (with some help from Hal Stringfellow Imbrie on bass), they did not have a drummer at this time and thus relied on programmed drums. This could have been a disaster, but actually works surprisingly well! No doubt, the lack of real drums is going to raise sceptical eyebrows, including my own at first. Obviously, a lot of effort has gone into making the drums sound "real" and most of the time it succeeds.

Whatever the album may lack in some technical departments it makes up for in strong melodies and lots of good musical ideas. Good material will always be more important than technical perfection, and once you get past any such issues a set of strong songs reveal themselves. This music is not going to be everyone's cup of tea for sure, but I enjoy this album more than most of Magellan's later albums. Give it a chance, you may be surprised!

 Hundred Year Flood by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 2002
3.52 | 96 ratings

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Hundred Year Flood
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator Symphonic Team

4 stars O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Hundred Year Flood is Magellan's fourth album and in my opinion their best effort. They had reached maturity at this point in their career and achieved a perfect balance between the various elements of their sound that characterized their earlier albums, toning down the heaviness of the previous Test Of Wills somewhat while turning up the symphonic aspects of the first two albums. This is still very much Heavy Prog, but it is heavy symphonic Prog.

Between this album and the previous one, the two Magellan brothers Trent and Wayne Gardner had both worked on the two Explorer's Club albums, the excellent Age Of Impact, released in 1998, and Raising The Mammoth, released the same year as Hundred Year Flood. They also worked on a solo album by Kansas' Steve Walsh called Glossolalia in 2000. The Gardners obviously learned a lot from creating those albums and working with people from Dream Theater among others.

Admittedly, I was not very impressed when I first tried to listen to this album several years ago. The almost 35 minute epic The Great Goodnight which opens the album was a lot to take in at first. But it clearly left a mark on me, urging me to return someday. It is a complex piece that requires multiple listens to sink in, but it was well worth the effort. The song is a eulogy to Trent's and Wayne's older brother who was killed in the Vietnam war. The a cappella arrangement in the beginning of the piece reminds of Gentle Giant and Yes' Leave It.

Family Jewels is an instrumental interlude that starts out sounding like Jethro Tull - courtesy of none other than Ian Anderson himself who appears here on his signature flute! - and it evolves into sounding like Emerson Lake & Palmer. In addition to Ian Anderson, other guests appearing here include Tony Levin (King Crimson, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe) and Robert Berry (collaborator of Steve Howe and Keith Emerson, among many others).

Finally, there is another heavy Prog numer in the anti-war song Brother's Keeper. This song is actually somewhat shorter than it appears as the track ends with a spoken dedication preceded by a minute of silence. The album as a whole clocks in to under 50 minutes, which is praiseworthy as so many bands tend to needlessly fill up entire CD's with music that often overstays its welcome.

Together with Age Of Impact by Explorer's Club, Hundred Year Flood is the Gardners' best work. Highly recommended!

 Impossible Figures by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 2003
3.43 | 95 ratings

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Impossible Figures
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by kev rowland
Special Collaborator Honorary Reviewer

4 stars Now on their fifth album, it is often hard when listening to Magellan to realise that apart from a guest drummer, this is a two man band. Trent Gardner provides the vocals and keyboards while his brother Wayne provides all of the guitars. The music they create will be extremely familiar to all fans of Kansas, and it is of no surprise that Trent has worked with Steve Walsh in the past. The album starts with a small instrumental interlude, quaintly titled "Gorilla With A Pitchfork". The keyboards build and the music takes on a more dramatic, driving edge. This fades out to be replaced with "Killer Of Edge" ? treated vocals give way to the guitar and gradually the song builds more and more, becoming a progressive rocker. This is the longest song on the album, at just over ten minutes and is succeeded by a piano/organ piece, "Bach 16" which in some ways sounds out of place yet also very much at home.

Dramatic and frantic drumming heralds the start of "Late For Church", which is again followed by another instrumental. This move from instrumental to song then back again provides a deal of emphasis, and the highly vocal "Hymn For A Heathen" is a joy with great vocal harmonies. Overall there are nine songs, and at no time can the listener even contemplate moving away or playing something else instead. This is a prog album that has its' roots very much in a similar vein to Kansas while trying to do something new, and any fans of one will enjoy very much the music of the other. Yet another extremely solid album from the Gardner brothers.

Originally appeared in Feedback #78, April 2004

 Test Of Wills by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 1997
3.53 | 133 ratings

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Test Of Wills
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by progaardvark
Collaborator Crossover/Symphonic/RPI Teams

4 stars Test of Wills was the follow-up to Magellan's Impending Ascension album. A complete shift in both musical style and sound took place on this album. The two most noticeable changes are a large incorporation of prog metal into the overall sound and the replacement of programmed drums with a human drummer. The latter was a great idea, althought Magellan could hold their own with programmed drums, something very few artists can pull off and turn them into something good. The addition of prog metal was a surprise and it has it's good and bad sides to it. The good is that the on some songs it gives it a good energy kick. The bad is that sometimes this style doesn't fit the quirkiness of Magellan's music. Another downside is that Trent Gardner's keyboards took a back seat, something I think is sorely missing from this album.

Magellan also seems to have picked up some Jethro Tull influences, in particular on the song Jacko. It's so convincing that it almost sounds like a rip-off, though I'm sure they did this as a tribute. By this time, all of their previous influences seem to have been shed and now Magellan has it's own sound.

Although I found this album an interesting experience, at times it seemed difficult because of the sudden shift in their sound. Also worth noting is that this incorporation of prog metal back in 1997 pre- dates many of the other neo prog bands that would do this in the early 2000s.

I like a lot of the material on this album, but it has a healthy dose of filler and that's the main reason I cannot rate it nearly as good as their previous effort. Consider it worth 3.5 stars, rounded up to four.

 Impending Ascension by MAGELLAN album cover Studio Album, 1993
3.71 | 149 ratings

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Impending Ascension
Magellan Heavy Prog

Review by progaardvark
Collaborator Crossover/Symphonic/RPI Teams

5 stars After their mixed-bag debut, Magellan improves dramatically with what is my favorite album from them; and also what I consider as their peak. What Magellan does here is expand on their better and longer tracks from their debut. Trent Gardner's keyboard work is exceptional and again the subject matter of the songs is mostly historical in nature. So in addition to great music, we can obtain a history lesson at the same time!

I have a hard time pinning a comparison to other groups for this album. Kansas seemed a big influence on their debut, but I don't sense that comparison much here. There are occasional nods to ELP and Yes (for the vocal harmonies), and maybe a teeny bit of Genesis. I guess what I am saying is that Magellan have adopted their own sound.

Programmed drums are still a part of the band (with the exception of a guest performance by Doane Perry), but don't think of that as a hindrance like it is for so many other bands and artists. This is the kind of album a drum programmer should listen to to hear how it is done correctly. Magellan would acquire a human drummer on their next album.

I still listen to this album a lot and I think it is vastly underrated. I consider it one of the gems at the forefront of the recovery of prog rock taking place in the early 1990s. The only sad thing about this album is that none of the following Magellan albums comes close to matching its quality.

Thanks to ProgLucky for the artist addition. and to Quinino for the last updates

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