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Album Reviews
# of "Main" reviews: 359 (mean score: 8.5)
# of additional "User" reviews: 547
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http://www.mistchild.com/magnitude9/
Origin: USA
(Ohio - Marysville)
Magnitude 9 formed back in the Spring of 1997 when Ohio native and reputable guitar god Rob Johnson broke away from his string of virtuoso instrumental recordings to team up with former Psycho Drama vocalist Corey Brown. Subsequently acquiring the talents of keyboardist Joseph Glean, drummer John Homan and bassist Kevin Chown (of Artension) the line-up was set, with the release of the band's debut Chaos to Control promptly following. The band's sound is marked by an abundance of technical proficiency in all departments.
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Chaos to Control (1998)
B+ 8.7
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The first thing that one notices about this album is the incredible amount of technical ability these musicians possess. Fast shredding, high quality vocals, classical keys, and bass/drum work that successfully keeps up with the rest, all come together to create a series of complex and impressive compositions. The musical prowess on the album is incontrovertible, but the real question, then, is if these songs can also be strong enough to stand on their own as more than just show-and-tell compositions decked with frantic furbelows of impressive musical passages. Happily, I believe the answer to this question to be resoundingly positive. Combining elements of Dream Theater, Fates Warning, and Symphony X, this album takes a solid prog metal foundation and lives up to the challenge of crafting convincing and memorable songs. My favorite track was "Don't Say", followed by "Into the Sun", "Secrets Within", and "Another World". Some added diversity would have given the album greater favor in my eyes, but overall this is an album that plays very well from start to finish. As a side note, the domestic release of this album (which I do not have) has a different album cover and features a remake of Rainbow's classic "Man on the Silver Mountain." (3/19/2002)
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Reality in Focus (2000)
B- 8.2
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Reality in Focus is a bit of a sophomore slump for Magnitude 9. While I complained a bit that the band's debut was a tad on the monotonous side, it looks pretty vibrant and diverse compared to what we have here on their second effort -- a disappointing and puzzling turn of events for a band that seemed poised to take things to the next level. With their first album, Magnitude 9 really showed a lot of promise as a budding prog metal act on the verge of something special. With Reality in Focus, the band has settled into a rut that sounds a lot like a heavier version of Rainbow. While there's nothing wrong with Rainbow per se, it wasn't samey mid-tempo rockers about dreams and illusions that got me into prog metal, and it's not really going to score huge points with me now, either. That said, the band is certainly good at what they do and have plenty of chops to back up their high-impact, straightforward approach. Virtuoso musicianship and overall sound style adds a strong Artension similarity to the previous Rainbow comparison, and Rob Johnson's guitar work is more Malmsteen-esque than the previous album. Still, in the end, this is a pretty colorless release. For your money, you basically get two great songs, "Lost Along the Way" and "Quiet Desperation" (which nearly sound the same); seven so-so filler tracks; and a pointless Iron Maiden facsimile ("Flight of Icarus"). I've seen a lot of reviews that continue to toss around the term prog metal when it comes to this album, and I just don't see it. Reality in Focus has much more in common with power metal bands like Dio, Malmsteen, or even Deep Purple and Rainbow than your more artistic and diverse accomplishments from bands like Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Vanden Plas, Pain of Salvation, Shadow Gallery, etc. Not exactly my thing. (1/17/2006)
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Decoding the Soul (2004)
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User review(s) available below.
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