Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Divinity can come in many shapes or forms. Long since passed the days of it being the preserve of a religious practise or mystic observance, divinity is to be seen as how something makes you feel, how an artistic endeavour bleeds into your soul and takes on the world that beckons within your heart, mind and soul; certainly in recent years that sense of divine spirit, of captured Rock performance and total commitment to the rites of the union between song writer, musicians and vocalist have been placed before the Rock acolyte in the form of Magnum.

Album after album, track after track, Magnum defy the forces of the casual put down and ceremonial malevolent asides to bring untold riches to the feet and the pleasure centres of the hearty and musical well fed, it is a defiance that grows in stature each time the band get together and in their latest studio album, Sacred Blood, Divine Lies, Magnum once more have played the best card in the pack and sent others scurrying for text books to work out just how they keep delivering.

There really is no secret to it all, a band forged in a truth of encompassing decency and passion will never falter and for Magnum, the special creed that presents itself in the lyric writing of Tony Clarkin, the beat provided by the genial and special forces of Al Barrow and Harry James, the majestic twirl at the finger tip disposal of Mark Stanway and the cradle soothing and heart trouncing voice of Bob Catley, faltering is not even in their dictionary or passbooks.

Sacred Blood, Divine Lies continues a marvellous tradition of post turn of the century albums in which the music has flowed without changing course, in which the music keeps on being revered and blessed and into which nothing gets in the way of the listener adhering to the point of having music in their lives. The point of music which keenly sticks to its maxim, of observing their own truth and damn all the detractors who understand only their strange mutterings, is one that keeps Magnum at the very top of their game.

In tracks such as Gypsy Queen, Afraid Of The Night, Crazy Old Mother and the outstanding Twelve Men Wise and Just, Magnum not only offer consistency, they offer a discipline in which many of their compatriots fail to remember, that they fail to hold onto; not for Magnum, not for their steadfast refusal to let go of their faith in their fans, it is a faith that is well-rewarded.

Sacred Blood, Divine Lies is yet another album by the seminal Midland’s band and one to which drives home the message that Rock, in the hands of those that praise it, is never far from the alter of honour.

Ian D. Hall