MEKANÏK DESTRUKTÏW KOMMANDÖH

What a strange album! MDK is often cited as an album that is challenging to the listener. Certainly, if one isn't familiar with Magma, this album will be a listening experience set quite apart from normal expectations. It's a very good album, though, and it's impact and influence have been wide ranging. I'll give it four stars here, as it really is a landmark in progressive music, but Magma has done better.

First of all, don't let the track listings fool you. This is one epic work, not seven short songs. It was meant to be listened to in one sitting, where the listener lets the magic of the album wash over him. The epic is unified by a recurring chord progression (usually and most notably played on the piano) which the various voices of Magma riff off of. This structure will recur again in the more stately (and to my ears, more masterful) Köhntarkösz.

The musicianship on this album is outstanding. Of particular note are the intricacies of Vander's drumming and the amazing bass playing of Jannik Top. Two great musicians at the top of their game, supported by a scintillating band, make this album special. I can't talk about the musicianship without mentioning the vocals, because the vocals are an integral part of this album. Indeed, MDK is all about vocals as instruments. That is where people seem to find the challenge in this album. The operatic style and the nearly incomprehensible lyrics are what give the most dedicated progger pause here. Listen to them as if they were instruments, however, and MDK will make a whole lot more sense, even though they occasionally go a bit overboard. (I find the soprano a bit annoying when she is riffing at the top of her range.)

So let's sum this up by saying that this is a Magma album that every progger should want to own. It is pompous, bombastic, overblown, challenging, and totally in the spirit of the '70's progressive movement while breaking fallow ground. 4 stars.