CD Review: Magnum - On the 13th Day
Steamhammer/SPV
All Access Review: B+
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| Magnum - On the 13th Day 2012 |
If Jon Bon Jovi was belting out “So Let It Rain” in that
raspy, dog-eared voice of his to a swarm of horny middle-aged housewives some
New York City morning on the “Today” show, the Twitter universe would be abuzz
with news of the blow-dried superstar’s newest surefire hit single. As it is,
the sweeping, big-hearted anthem – one of many here – from Magnum’s latest opus, On the
13th Day, out via Steamhammer/SPV, will go largely unheard, and that’s too bad. That
track and others on the exhilarating new record deserve a better fate.
The less cynical among us might actually weep openly when
Magnum singer Bob Catley, doing his best Roger Daltrey impersonation, wrings
out a range of emotions in delivering the line, “You know that I don’t give a
damn/I’m only me, that’s who I am,” while a deluge of keyboards and guitar
pours down on his proud face. It’s a song of empowerment and gritting one’s
teeth as reality prepares to do its worst to a true underdog story, not so
different really from John Parr’s emotional – some might say, “Cheesy” –
reading of “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion).” And like that ‘80s touchstone, it
doesn’t seem to fit in with what’s trendy and happening right now in music.
That’s okay with Magnum; the old British progressive-metal warhorse never concerned
itself with such things anyway. Even in their salad days, when Magnum’s
pop-infused hard rock once had Europe all agog for the melodic fare of records
such as On a Storyteller’s Night and
the Roger Taylor-produced Vigilante,
the band’s art-rock sensibility was a hard sell in America, the promise land
for any metal-related acts of that time.
These days, it is the alliance of Catley and
songwriter/guitarist Tony Clarkin that holds Magnum together, and although some
might find the big emotional swings and melodic bombast of On
the 13th Day a little heavy-handed – “Putting Things in Place”
being a prime example of Magnum at their most overwrought – only the most
hard-hearted corporate raider could fail to be moved by the working-class
sentiments of “Shadow Town” and its giant chorus. An uplifting epic carried on
broad-shouldered synthesizers, luxurious piano and magnificent guitar ascents –
interrupted for a stretch by some elegant and agile soloing – “Shadow Town”
talks of the closing of factories, greed and the misery of the poor with all
the poetic righteousness and fervor of a Springsteen. And yet, Magnum will
never in a million years see that kind of critical acclaim.
Undeterred, Magnum carries on, perhaps wondering if their
propensity for crafting irresistible, if occasionally trite, melodies and generating overwhelming sonic
force would find sympathetic ears in Europe’s burgeoning power-metal movement.
What could be more attractive to that crowd than the tumescent string movements
marching through “Didn’t like You Anyway” like a symphonic army? How, indeed,
could they possibly ignore the majestic phalanx of clean-burning guitars and
silvery synthesizers that provide the rocket-booster thrust to the 7:20 opener
“All the Dreamers” needed to drive it skyward or the street-tough, switchblade
hooks of “Blood Red Laughter,” a rousing song that absolutely has Survivor’s
“Eye of the Tiger?”
So what if On the 13th
Day seems like a throwback to the unabashedly earnest songwriting of the
‘80s. There are enough wonderfully complex piano parts, rising synth swells and
clever little guitar puzzles here to appease hardcore prog enthusiasts looking
for classically inspired passages and envelope-pushing musicianship, and when
the spirit moves them, as it does on the relentless “Dance of the Black Tattoo” and the bitter “Broken
Promises,” Magnum can swing a hammer with the best of them, slamming down heavy
riffage and crunching rhythms. Indifference from the world at large may
disappoint Magnum, but it’s gratifying to see them still plugging away. Maybe
these underdogs will, again, have their day.
-
Peter Lindblad
