Originally published by L.S. Media. January 17th 2011.

Sixteen studio albums down the road and the Magnum story keeps on going. Two years ago the band produced the stunning and critically acclaimed Into the Valley of the Moonking; they follow this up with the quite frankly incredible The Visitation.

Once more Tony Clarkin’s signature song writing style is very much in evidence as he deals with subjects close to his and the bands heart. There can be very few bands where the main song writer and the vocalist are so in tune with each other’s requirements that the songs they come up with are stirring and poignant at the same time.

The song that’s been aired on various rock radio stations such as Planet Rock only goes to highlight the chemistry between the two men, the wonderful Wild Angel which has crowd pleaser and hit stamped all over it.

There really isn’t a bad track on the album and that makes it all the more special, to have been around for the length of time that they have still be able to write quality tracks such as Midnight Kings, Spin Like a Wheel and Doors to Nowhere goes to show the importance of the band and their sheer professionalism to giving their fans good music to listen to.

Guitarist and band songwriter Tony Clarkin, vocalist Bob Catley and keyboard player Mark Stanway as the core membership of the band seem rejuvenated in their outlook to producing quality albums not seen since the heady days of the mid to late 80’s. Since they came back on the scene with the 2002 recording Breath of Life, the band have created five class albums which shows that to the world outside of mainstream Rock and Progressive Rock they have been woefully under appreciated.

Of course the inclusion of new blood since the reformation of the band has helped and with bass player, band photographer and genuinely nice guy Al Barrow making his fifth appearance on a studio album and one of the best technical drummers in the business in the shape of Harry James, ex- Thunder, playing on his third it seems as if the Magnum story could run and run.

Ian D. Hall