CHASE THE DRAGON

Magnum this band who emerged from NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) movement, has from the beggining a prog leaning and is more an AOR and Hard rock band with prog influences,then their country fellows Iron Maiden, Saxon, Raven, etc, from that time who were enterly on heavy metal side, maybe is similar with Def Leppard Pyromania era and Praying Mantis who also has a melodic aproach of heavy metal. Chase the dragon was the real breakthroug for the band, with some outstanding tracks like:Soldier On The Line, The Spirit, Sacred hour and my favourite piece from here Walking The Straight Line, the rest are also good. Is quite an excellent album and was their most consistently album 'till then yet and is swamped in wonderful keyboards combined with AOR/ hard rock guitars. The voice of Bob Catley is a real pleasure to listen, and delivers some great moments like on Walking The Straight Line, in fact on the whole album. All in all a great album and for sure needs attention from prog listners, 4 stars for this one, worth every track. By the way the expanded version has some intristing bonus tracks, A-side and B- side singles Back to the earth and Hold back your love, some live versions of Soldier of the lines and Sacred hour, and one unreleased track Long Days, Black Nights. The next album The eleventh hour was not as good as this, but the one from 1985 is a real gem. Enjoy.