Album Review: Magnum - The Monster Roars

Consistency, they name is Magnum. The English stalwarts have been releasing albums with clockwork regularity, getting our January's off to solid starts just about every other year. Sometimes, that's as much as there is to say about a new Magnum record. For as much as I do appreciate the band, and like a solid portion of what they do, none of their recent records have struck me as being vitally important. I love "Princess Alice & The Broken Arrow", and there are always songs on the others that only Magnum can give us, but after two dozen records, asking them to wow and amaze is too much. So long as they give us some solid entertainment, they're doing their job.

I have to admit I was worried about their ability to do so, considering that neither of the advance singles held much appeal for me. "No Steppin' Stones" especially was a let-down, where it seemed the songs was more focused on pointing toward the horn section than a classic melody. The new twist was nice, but without a better song in which to place it, I wasn't coming away very impressed.

The record's opening, if you didn't hear anything prior to release, is much the same. The title track relies on a chorus that has none of the grandeur of Magnum's best work. It feels like an attempt to be more modern, with a heavier rhythmic aspect to Bob Catley's vocals, but that just isn't who Magnum are. Their music is old-fashioned, but that's what we want from them. It's what they're good at, frankly, and this song proves it by showing us the opposite.

The songs that are classic Magnum deliver exactly what we want and expect. "Remember" is a great example of the melodic swell Magnum trades in, and when the chorus of "The Present Not The Past" hits, the cascade of backing vocals is darn near magical. I don't quite understand why they left so much buzzing from the acoustic guitar in the verses, but the payoff is worth the distraction.

The best song on the record is "Your Blood Is Violence", which not only nails the power and pageantry of classic Magnum, it gets in a great line about "your voice [being] a deadly sin". Some might say it plods, while others might say it's schmaltzy. Exactly. That's why it's so great. Magnum has always come with a hint of camp to their appeal, and being a dose of levity in a world of rock that can often take itself way too seriously is one of the reasons Magnum has been able to stick around for fifty years. Staind will not be able to sing about daddy issues when they're approaching their seventies, while Magnum can continue taking the piss out of things for as long as they like.

What can you really say about a Magnum album at this point? It's hard to make an album that garners attention and acclaim when you have twenty more of them people have lived with for so long. Magnum, though, keeps on keepin' on. While there are moments they stumble a bit, this record feels to me like the highs are much higher than the last couple, so the ride is a more interesting one than some of their other recent albums. Do I think this will be one of the best albums of the year? No, I don't. What I do think is that it's a damn fine Magnum album that has enough really good songs to more than justify itself.