HOUR OF RESTORATION

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.

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