REALITY IN FOCUS

Magnitude 9's Reality In Focus is a prime example of a problem of simulocker in progressive metal. Magnitude 9 takes too many pieces from other bands resuling in an unimaginative meaningless listen. The musicianship overall is average, also failing to impress. In short, fi you have heard, Dream Theater, Symphony X, and Iron Maiden...you have already heard this album. The second track "What My Eyes Have Seen" might as well be a cover off of Symphony X's V album.

The guitarist Rob Johnson is the bright spot of the band. He excells at neo-classical lead work. His rythymns don't exactly lack skill, but they do however lack what the rest of the band does, creativity. His tone is taken out of a digital library of guitar tones, but don't be fooled he can put togethor some quality solos throughout the album.

Joseph Glean the keyboardist suffers from a similar problem. He can put togethor some interesting neo-classical lead work, but lacks creativity. Glean unlike Johnson is almost a ghost rythymnically. His synth tones are repeatative and lack prescence throughout the album. He doesn't have very much functionality, and fails to fill holes like many keyboardists of this genre do so well.

Vocalist Corey Brown has admirable abilities with poor tone. Brown shows the capability to sustain and sing in many ranges, but fails to harmonize properly. His multiple takes on vocals don't help his cause. Brown's preformance on the Iron Maiden cover "Flight of Icarus" is a perfect replication of Bruce Dickinson. Brown isn't a bad vocalist, but he just doens't fit this band or genre.

Kevin Chown is non-existent. The bass plays almost no role in the album making the performance seem of equal quality without it.

Chown's rythymn section counterpart Kevin Homan is similar, only a drum machine would be needed to hold the beat for those neo-classical solos. Homan uses the most generic drum beats concieveable for this genre. There is nothing that moves the songs to a higher level.

A good rythymn section can really make a band excell, a bad one can absolutely crash it.

The production is unimaginative. An Acid Pro Loop Program could do the job for this band. Every tone sounds like a sample from a digital library with no mixing necessary. The bass is vacant in the mix and the guitars are a bit to prominent. The vocals are coarse and poorly recorded.

One star, and that's pushing it.

Share this MAGNITUDE 9 review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to AtLossForWords
• Report this review (#80138)
• Buy MAGNITUDE 9 music online with PA partners
• Show all MAGNITUDE 9 MP3/Stream
• Go to MAGNITUDE 9 page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Reality in Focus page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for MAGNITUDE 9 related discussions