Album Review: Magnum - The Serpent Rings

Magnum is like clockwork. Every couple of years we get another album of their particular blend of pomp-rock, and it's a nice reminder that they are still out there doing their thing, when they don't have any reason other than the love of music to do so. Magnum are always enjoyable, but they have also proven themselves to be wildly inconsistent. After "Brave New Morning' and the fantastic "Princess Alice And The Broken Arrow", they have settled into a groove where every record sports one or two great songs to add to the catalog, and the rest is filler to get us on to the next album cycle. I know we don't expect bands to be writing their best stuff after forty years, but I'm sure they could be doing a bit more. Bob Catley has popped up as a guest on enough albums doing great work that I desperately want to hear him singing great music again. And since he hasn't put out a solo album in ages, that leaves Magnum.

Once again, Magnum deliver us a solid hour of new music, which if I'm being honest, is at least ten minutes too much. All of their albums are roughly that length, and even the ones I like feel like they go one one or two songs too much. Unless you're writing nothing but killer tracks, and hour is asking a lot these days.

We get off to a good start with "Where Are You Eden?" The song does what Magnum does best, blending some crunchy rock with beautiful keyboard and orchestral work. Look, this is Magnum's twenty-first album, so we've heard it all before. The only question with each album is which bits of their history get emphasized, and has Tony Clarkin pulled out a couple extra great melodies. The answer to the former is Magnum trending toward their heavier side, and the answer to the latter is... sort of.

Like all Magnum albums, the songs are smooth and melodic, but not a lot of them hit the grandiose notes that their best songs do. The chorus to "Not Forgiven" is one of those moments, but for every song like that, there's a "Madman Or Messiah" where they lose that magical feeling. Or there's the title track, which spends more than two minutes building up to an ascending melody that is the perfect way for the song to explode into a massive chorus... but instead it pulls back to a very small sounding melody instead. All the work setting the stage was done just so the lights could get turned down a few notches too far.

Then there's "House Of Kings", where Catley and the band try for an aggressive approach, and nothing about it works. Catley's voice is not an angry one, and him pushing himself doesn't sound very good. Maybe it's his age, but he's clearly at his best when he's singing in a more dramatic or emotional tone. Forced aggression doesn't sound natural for him, or for Magnum.

There are still some good songs on here, like those I've mentioned, as well as "The Great Unknown" and "Man", but I'd be lying if I said it added up to a full album of great Magnum material. The good stuff is good, but there's enough lesser material that it drags down the album's average. If you cut out three tracks, and left this as a forty-five minute album, it would be pretty good. Not one of their best, but certainly something work coming back to. I can't really say that about the full record. I would say this is one to pick out the good songs, and focus on them. If you do, you've got five or six very good Magnum tracks. That's not so bad.