Trent Gardner - Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Trombone
Wayne Gardner - Guitars, Bass, Backing Vocals
Guest Musicians:
Jason Gianni - Drums
Stephen Imbler- Piano on Bach 16
Jeff Curtis - Brass Arrangement on Bach 16

This time, we didn’t have to wait long for a new Magellan album. The reason for this must be Trent’s leaving Magna Carta and signing up to Inside Out and this time he wasn’t working on any other projects, as he did before with The Explorers Club and Leonardo. The problems with Magna Carta and the new start with Inside Out have led to a very powerful and strong work of art.

They combine classic 70’s progressive rock sounds with some heavier guitar riffs. They also use a special layering in the vocal harmonies. Especially the longest track “Killer Of Hope”, contains all this ingredients and must appeal to every progrockfan. Everything is there, heavier pieces, beautiful keyboard textures, strong vocals, symphonic and bombastic pieces and complex and well-played drumming by Jason Gianni. On this album, most of the tracks are much shorter then we are used to from Magellan.
Two tracks don’t even pass the three minute barrier. One of them is the “Bach 16” track. It starts off with a piano intro performed by special guest Stephen Imbler. It’s a portion of the “Goldberg Variation #8” written by J.S. Bach, followed by a brass outro.
The other “shorty” is “Confessor’s Overture”, a very skilfully played keyboard solo and some very good piano playing, all by Trent himself.

But immediately after that the power and energy comes back. The drummer, Jason Gianni, is really doing a great job on this album. He makes me think of Mike Portnoy, most of the time. He’s the author of an upcoming drum book entitled, "The Drummer's Bible: How to Play Every Style from Afro-Cuban to Zydeco", which he brought into practice for the “A World Groove” track. This is a very peculiar track for a progressive rock album. It starts off with some African or let’s calls it “world music” (anthropology is not my strongest) drumming and the rest of the track is filled with foreign rhythms and music. It’s a hard to get into this song, but it really grows on you. The same can be said for the rest of the album.

Just a few minor buts. I’m not always happy about the vocals. I like their voices, but sometimes their vocal melody lines and layering sound as if they were written for a brass section. I also would have wanted a quiet track to give the listener a break. Every track is complex, full of energy and every musician is very busy, all the time. A ballad or semi-ballad would have made this album a real winner for me, or maybe a quiet guitar solo could also have done the job. A part of “Feel The Cross” does the trick, but that’s already during the second part of the last track.

But this is certainly the best Magellan album since “The Hour Of Restoration”. My preference still goes to Trent’s “Leonardo”. This “Impossible Figures” must be something for progressive and progmetal fans.