Search - Magenta :: Metamorphosis

A great folk-tinged prog-rock album

Y. Jossa | NJ | 05/29/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I wasn't familiar with Magenta's music before receiving this CD for review.

After doing a little research, i found out that Magenta are a Welsh progressive rock band conceived in 2001 by Rob Reed as a studio project that became an unexpected success and became a live band who've managed to play in prog-rock festivals all over the globe.



What struck me the most about Magenta, is that the band basically combines a miriad of old-school prog-rock and folk influences into a cohesive sound, all of their own. The best way i can describe the sound of this album is to picture a later-day Porcupine Tree (and all their influences) jamming with 70's pop-rock-folk-celtic icons such as Pentangle and specially Renaissance, who in their day did some ground breaking of their own by mixing classical, folk and jazz with rock back in 1969..



The folk-prog connection makes a lot of sense, specially since Magenta made a 4 song EP called "Night and Day" where Christina Booth duets with Renaissance vocalist Annie Haslam,



The prog-rock influences are sometimes obvious.. Pink Floyd, Yes and the like, but what sets the band apart from the pack of neo-prog rock bands are the folk-inspired vocals and harmonies of Christina Booth, but let's make clear that Magenta are a prog-rock group with folk influences and not the other way around. This is a prog-rock album, first and foremost.



There are 4 songs on this album, two of them clocking over 20 minutes, but the long songs are always changing with multiple parts and various forms of instrumentation ranging from heavy guitars, synth keyboards to acoustic folk and classical instruments, and this keeps things always interesting.



This album is a must have for fans of songwriting based prog-rock with female vocals.

"

Do not overlook this prog rock masterpiece!

Paul W. Duet | New Orleans, LA United States | 03/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay so I'm a huge prog rock and prog metal fan... and if you are a longtime fan of the genre like myself, you probably know that these bands are always experimenting and changing their styles and sounds from one album to the next.. and sometimes they get lucky and pop out a classic - an album that is near perfection from start to finish. Dream Theater did it with SCENES FROM A MEMORY, Yes did it with CLOSE TO THE EDGE, Genesis did it with THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY.. ask any fan of the genre and they'll probably agree with my above list..



Magenta crafts an undisputable progressive-rock masterpiece with METAMORPHOSIS - an album that can hold it's own with the best prog albums of all time... seriously! I had heard a couple of Magenta albums before this one, and really.. they were nothing special. I only paid attention to this one so much because of the abnormally long songs, and because I was recently impressed with an album from the Magenta bassists side project The Reasoning (AWAKENING)...



The performances on this album, on every instrument, are very impressive and inspiring. I'm listening to the album (METAMORPHOSIS) right now for the third time today, and I've been having it for at least 2 months. These four songs are so good.. it's crazy. You really need to at least grab one of them and check it out.. here's my rundown:



1. "The Ballad Of Samuel Layne"

The album opens with this 20 minute plus tour de force about a soldier who goes to war and leaves his family behind.. it's just an instant classic and an incredible song at every twist and turn. Within the first few minutes you'll get slammed by upbeat prog peppered with very tasteful guitar and keyboard solos, then 7 minutes in you get to the amazingly subtle soft piano driven part of the song.. AMAZING vocals throughout, by the way... I won't talk about every great moment of the song *though I could for days on end* but really, it's an amazing ride. If this song doesn't move you, emotionally, then you have problems. haha



2. "Prekestolen"

The second track on the album is a short, haunting ballad. The vocals and music here are just so freaking perfect.. it's amazing (I can't stop using that word!) Anyway this song is absolutely beautiful, with a killer alto-sax solo at the end.. wow.



So when track 2 ends, you get your first moment of silence.. just long enough to think to yourself about how the first half of the album kicked your butt, and then



3. "Metamorphosis"

BAM! Another 20 minute+ epic piece. Just to stop gushing for a minute.. the first 5 minutes of this song are the weakest 5 minutes of the whole album... still it's better than most 5 minute passages on any given album out there, so enjoy the break... the slow part that comes in next, with the "I'm still holding on" hook, is possibly the best part of the whole album.. and really the rest of the song is really really really good! the whole middle 6 or 8 minutes of the song has all these great prog riffs and really sweet subtle parts with tons of flute, xylophone, and acoustic guitar. The bass player really comes out swinging throughout this whole song.. it's so fun to listen to his parts and play along with them while listening.. he's very inventive like every great prog bassist should be.. he's really one of the best guys in the business, just for the great parts he writes.. I enjoy focusing on him during this song. God this is an amazing song! The slower parts are just breath-taking!



4. "Blind Faith"

Oddly enough, this is the first song I listened to from this album, mainly because Dream Theater has a really killer song with the same title and I was curious to see if it was a cover.. but no it's another amazing original piece. This song is so different from the rest of the album.. it almost sounds like a different band (Portishead, really).. it has a very simple structure and a pop-like feel with all these completely killer vocal hooks. The chorus hook from this song is so flippin catchy, it will stay stuck in your head for a very long time! (like I said earlier, I've had this album for about 3 months now and it just keeps getting better with each listen).. so yeah, rather easily, this song trumps the Dream Theater song of the same name several times over.



In closing, I can't emphasize enough that this album is one of the best prog albums I've ever heard. I can't believe that I'm only the second person to review it on Amazon.. anyway one last thing.. this album is so good that I had to figure out how to put my ipod on repeat because of it.



Better than my beloved Kino's PICTURE.. better than the now legendary MILLIONTOWN by Frost.. hmm.. I hate to say this, but really.. way better than Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree's entire catalog of albums. Easily better than just about everything that's come out in decades. It's really THAT good.. believe it. I mean, the last album I rated 5 stars was ISOLATE by Circus Maximus, which is a way killer album... but even ISOLATE is a weak album compared to this Magenta album.. it's freaking sick."

Good prog band that shows sign of future success

NEOPROG RAN | EL PASO TX | 12/30/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Gift from my wife for X-Mas. I like this band's approach. The EPIC songs are interesting and this band has a lot of promise. I will get more of their CDs in the future."