MAGNUM II

Magnum II is more original and distinctive, more complex, sophisticated and inventive, much more mature and slightly harder than its predecessor. (And closer to Kansas, by the way.) I'd say the most impressive are If I Could Live Forever, So Cold The Night and Firebird, but in total, the entire sequence from The Battle to All Of My Life is brilliant. (Though, if I produced the album I'd reverse the LP sides. Just try to listen to side 2 first and then to side 1. I think it would be better if the album started with So Cold The Night and ended with Reborn.) Unfortunately, there are also tracks of completely different sort than So Cold The Night or Firebird on this amazing album. I mean Great Adventure and Changes. Of course none of them is as primitive and trite as the continuous thresher of the band's later albums. Nevertheless, both are IMHO transitional fossils from Magnum's early prog to Magnum's later vulgar rock in the vein of Europe (do you remember this mediocre 'arena rock' band, very popular on the late 1980s FM radio and almost forgotten nowadays, though reportedly still active?). Since then, Magnum became more professional but completely lost their individuality. I listened to their albums from various periods between 1982 and 2022, including their latest one, hoping that one day they would remember that they were an excellent prog rock band in their early days. No, they never recovered. Magnum still keeps baking commercial stadium rock albums full of platitudes, one by one. Impossible to believe that now they are capable to write a song like So Cold The Night, even if they want to.