MAGNUM: Vigilante (A.O.R.): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Between 1982 and 1985 Magnum released three royal records with "Chase The Dragon", "The Eleventh Hour" and "On A Storytellers' Night". Until then, the combo was working in Hard Rock, certainly rather FM but above all full of melodious emphases, where guitars dominated the keyboards and which exhaled a very British class endowed with a rather dark side due to its sometimes rather heavy ambiences. "Vigilante", released in 1986, doesn't totally follow the same way and therefore, can be considered as a turning point in the combo's discography.

Indeed, one can feel from listening to this sixth album that the English try to enter the American market. The keyboards are more present, they are even invasive, the rhythm guitar is almost absent, in any case it doesn't guide the discourse as much anymore, the tracks navigate less on the progressive waves and therefore, the concepts are less pushed. Nothing very annoying if the listener very often hadn't the feeling to be dealing with an electronic kit distilling rhythmics worthy of a dance-floor, this choice being surprising to say the least.

Luckily, the English didn't give up their science of melody and, even if we can regret that there are too many ballads and mid-tempi, there are still in this opus some must-haves like 'Sometime Love' or 'Vigilante' - the eponymous title - which is still one of the jewels of the British concerts.

So it's a mixed impression that comes out of this album. The British will then confirm their intentions to attack the US market but they will correct the flaws of this opus on their next album, "Wings Of Heaven", which will put almost everyone in agreement. - Official website

MAGNUM

VIGILANTE

POLYDOR

A.O.R.