Who doesn’t like a bit of innuendo? Magick Touch, obviously does. Love Rocket doesn’t leave much to the imagination and clearly gets its intention across. Unfortunately, the album kind of goes limp shortly after and then falls asleep for the night, even with some poking and prodding from the band.
Electrick Sorcery starts strong with a great opening. Love Rocket is punchy and ticks all the boxes for a 70’s style sing along rock song. This one should have been the single.
The next few songs kind of try to Van Halen it up, but they don’t quite make it. It’s early days though – first album and all. Points for trying, but they’re not quite there just yet.
Underwater Prison is fairly dull and by the end of the song it’s really just noise.
Trouble & Luck (the single) has a good chorus, but that’s about all that’s on offer.
One thing that I believe defines a really good singer is that they should know their vocal range and stick to it. HK Rein can sing, I’m not questioning that. But Joker vs Ace proves he can’t sing as high as he thinks he can. Tune this one down like Manowar does these days and it will sound much better. Wildfire has a much better vocal range. Slow, but a solid effort. Reprise is a really nice acoustic session. Much too short, this would make a great backbone to a long, powerful song. This clearly shows there’s talent in the band. More of this please!
Dead Man in Chicago sounds something like if you got Nic Cester from JET to front an AC/DC tribute band. Weirder things have happened and I’d like to hear more. Out of Reality. Great intro. The rest, not so much. The engine started, but the train never left the station.
Swansong. Brave name, but a good song. Loose Cannon keeps the ‘what if AC/DC?’ vibe alive by throwing some Eddie van Halen at it. Good song and a great finish to an otherwise average album.
While I’m being a bit harsh on the whole, I don’t want to casually dismiss the hard work put in by the band. These guys have taken a shot and released an album. They should be congratulated for that. It’s not really a bad album, it’s just not foot tapping, jaw dropping amazing. There are some great ideas, but the boys are missing a solid direction and some polish.
Individually, these guys all sound great. There’s some great fretwork, vocals and some of the songs are good, but there’s something missing. Something isn’t quite meshing like it should.
Magick Touch have promise and this a good first album. Radiohead couldn’t have made Ok Computer without Pablo Honey. I’m not writing these guys off, they have a lot to say and hopefully get the chance to say it.
Would I add a patch to my jacket? Not this time. I’ll certainly look for their next album though, who knows?
Leave A Comment