Magellan

Magellan represents the second wave of sonic explorers, those who sailed in spirit with the most storied of the prog rock pioneers (e.g., Genesis, Kansas, Rush, Yes) during their youth and now seek to make the journey in practice. Magellan is a truly unique progressive rock band, especially in its lyrics; on its first couple of albums, in particular, Magellan emphasizes historical lyrics. If you are looking for a song about the signing of the Magna Carta or the group's namesake, Magellan, circumnavigating the globe, then Magellan is the band for you.
It was Ferdinand Magellan's spirit of adventure and willingness to take risks that caused bandleader Trent Gardner to name his band Magellan. Trent wrote all the songs and sand and played keyboards…

Magellan is a group named for the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. With a name like that, one expects their albums to take you on a journey, and this one does not disappoint. The group is composed of Trent Gardner, Wayne Gardner, and Joe Franco. Together with some notable guests, they have produced a CD that both captures elements of classic progressive rock and carves out its own niche in the musical landscape. The disc contains only three songs, one of them the album opener, a 35-minute opus (divided into 13 CD tracks) entitled "The Great Goodnight." The album deals with the personal loss of the Gardner brothers, that of their brother, Jack Elroy, in the Vietnam war. The piece is an appropriately emotional one that covers a lot of musical ground. Indeed, the composition pulls you in and gets you so wrapped up that it really does not seem like 35 minutes have passed…

The sixth studio album by Magellan contains seven songs ranging in length from two minutes to more than 18 minutes. "Symphonette" (featuring Steve Walsh/Trent Gardner/David Manion on keyboards) and "Pianissimo Intermission" are brief instrumentals that show off Trent's classical leanings, while "Why Water Weeds?" offers heavy drama and the wicked "Doctor Concoctor" borders on progressive metal.

With 2003's Impossible Figures, Magellan remain one of the most died-in-the-wool and compelling prog rock bands. Given their embrace of technology - endless layers of keyboards and drum machines - and their insistence of the "rock" side of prog with big churning guitars and fat, muddy basslines, they are an anomaly. While they are a truly original act, their roots lie somewhere between Volume IV-period Black Sabbath, King Crimson's Larks' Tongues in Aspic and Starless and Bible Black, and Genesis' Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. There is so much bombast in their music - including the tympani sound from 2001: A Space Odyssey - that helps to introduce the album's opener, "Gorilla With Pitchfork"…