Magnum - On A Storyteller's Night (1985)

Well, it's 10/10 for the cover - the perfect metal portrait to entice in any young, warty, troll-obsessed metalhead. Dark woods, glowing embers, crackling flames and the hoot of an owl. Strangely, despite producing some of the best album covers of all time I never walked into Magnum's woodland trap, their brand of Brit rock all seemed a little light on the ears after being introduced to so many more oily and scary bands. I suppose that many years later I can appreciate this lot more and attempt to take it to pieces, but I always slotted this type of music alongside the likes of Marillion where the imagery of the covers was always more interesting than the music. Those steamy guitars, almost dreamlike, the echoing keys - and believe me, the album is full of them - and Catley's smooth vocals drift over the landscape, but I guess I was naive to expect an almost Tolkien-inspired oaken metal but instead we are plied with soft rock, at times good but not enough for me. The title cut gives us more of a candlelit stroll into deeper woods but it's the Middle Earth whispers of Dio I want, not a keyboard infested arena. Magnum are of course a separate entity to most metal acts, not because they are original but at times they may barely filter into the metal genre, again, the cover may mislead some, but they carved a pretty successful and long career so fair play to them. However, Clarkin's guitars only just about manage a clunk on 'Before First Light' and the keys on 'Just Like An Arrow' are unnecessary if you ask me. At times this could well be a cauldron of Ultravox/Pink Floyd/John Farnham, 'Les Morts...' a prime example of the slow-building, but never-getting-anywhere mood, but tracks such as 'Endless Love' just can't compete with what else is around. Hell, it's not even cheesy! Magnum failed to find a place in my heart but with that sort of cover their record does find a place in my collection.

6.5/10