THE MAGUS

Nearly a decade after their stunning debut, Universal Totem Orchestra emerged from the depths with another epic zeuhl piece. However, whereas their previous album incorporated a much broader range of influences, this is much more of a straight-down-the-line attempt to produce a zeuhl album according to the compositional principles laid out on the classic-era Magma albums, and to be honest the material here just isn't as gripping as it really needs to be to hold my attention. Still, zeuhl addicts will get a lot of pleasure out of it, and most prog fans with a taste for the weird will get at least some enjoyment here.