Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Magic Pie
Label: Karisma Records
Release: 2015
Running time: 70:13
Rating: 4/5
Norway’s Magic Pie are undoubtedly (still) among the most interesting players on the modern Scandinavian prog rock scene, with somewhat brighter, ambient shades compared to melancholic gloom merchants like Anekdoten, but they’re still a long way from being the kind of mischievous party animals that the far more popular The Flower Kings are. Their punchy approach to progressive rock, which besides old-school symphonic prog influences also has traces of hard rock and prog metal, delivered some impressive results on the first three Magic Pie studio albums, released over the past decade, so they’ve rightly collected plenty of positive reviews.
In that time the ambitious Norwegian outfit, whose trademark is lead vocals swapped around between three guitarists, Airikur Hauksson, Kim Stenberg and Eirik Hanssen, has built up a wider following among fans of modern prog, who mostly rate Wobbler and Gazpacho as the best of their countrymen, so the already high expectations of devotees have only grown over time. »King For a Day« is the title of their long-awaited fourth studio album, built exactly the way fans of the band would expect and at the same time not offering any big sonic upgrade, so the new Magic Pie album is neither better nor worse than its very good, but not exactly brilliant/unrepeatable predecessors.
Even though Magic Pie’s music, ruled by a high degree of virtuosity and an exceptional ear for building dramatic vocal harmonies, shows such diverse influences as Genesis, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, ELP, Kansas and Styx, the band doesn’t clone what’s already been heard, but stays true to its own sonic language, while often showing remarkable spontaneity in improvising and weaving together individual arrangements. All three guitarists once again shone in creating dramatic multi-harmonies and mostly interesting improvisations, making the most of their skills and talents. The rhythm section is just creative and hard-working enough that there isn’t a boring moment on the album, while keyboardist Erling Henanger is distinctive enough the whole way through that, when laying down his synthesizer textures, he never sounds like an imitator of certain keyboard legends of progressive rock.
You can hear all of this already on the opener »Trick Of The Trade«, which, with its dynamic mix of hard rock guitar phrases, symphonic prog keyboard passages and Styx-style arena rock vocal approach, makes for a pretty fun introduction to the album. The twelve-minute epic »Introversion« has a few more subtle moments with pastoral arrangements, while the epic vocal harmonies in the chorus are very reminiscent of Kansas. Hauksson’s energetic, raspy vocal approach, which occasionally edges toward David Coverdale (Whitesnake, ex-Deep Purple), though without the trademark charisma, is convincing amid the hard rock guitar phrases and always steps aside in time when the symphonic arrangements kick in, so it never ends up sounding out of place. The epic three-part harmonies in the closing section add some extra drama too.
»According To Plan« is yet another representative and complex, but relatively unexciting track, packed with assorted influences from various Magic Pie musical role models. The neo-prog hybrid »Tears Gone Dry«, another epic of more than twelve minutes, this time with plenty of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis influences, has a lovely, extremely subtle guitar solo in the intro, while the guitar phrases in the background recall something Steve Rothery (Marillion) could have come up with too. The individual guitar harmonies, paired with the keyboard romanticism, are a real feast for the ears this time, while the psychedelic main motif is a little reminiscent of Pink Floyd, which lasts right up until the band once again goes chasing its Deep Purple heritage in the guitar passages and a ‘Coverdale meets Glenn Hughes’ vocal approach, so in the end it’s one of the most interesting moments on the album.
On »Silent Giant«, ruled by angry guitar passages, noticeably more electronic-leaning synthesizer textures and a furious vocal approach, Magic Pie suddenly show a somewhat darker take on punchy progressive rock. The title track, which is also the closer, is by far the most ambitious piece on the album, running more than twenty-seven minutes, which makes it a proper prog rock super-epic, where the band grants itself a veritable playground for unrestrained improvising and for showing off some unexpectedly interesting ideas, and they manage to avoid a single stretched-out or sleepy moment from start to finish.
Anyone who’s into a punchier approach to prog rock with a slight arena rock flavor will have a blast listening to »King For a Day«, even though the album as a whole doesn’t mark any evolutionary leap for the band to a higher artistic level. With it, Magic Pie keep up the respectable level of quality of their three previous efforts, but this time they just missed out on a spot among the most exciting prog rock albums of 2015, since, despite their remarkable virtuosity and musical and arranging know-how, they still lack a bit more individuality and charisma when writing their compositions and constantly soaking up the influences of their musical heroes. »King For a Day«, which despite its considerable length of seventy minutes doesn’t contain a single boring moment, will almost certainly appeal to all fans of modern Scandinavian-school prog rock in the vein of Swedish heavyweights The Flower Kings, Kaipa, Karmakanic and Beardfish.
Line-up
Kim Stenberg – guitar, vocals
Airikur Hauksson – lead vocals, guitar
Eirik Hanssen – guitar, vocals
Jan Torkild Johannessen – drums
Erling Henanger – keyboards, backing vocals
Lars Petter Holstad bass guitar, backing vocals
Production
Kim Stenberg
Tracklist
1. Trick of the Trade (6:09)
2. Introversion (12:24)
3. According To Plan (6:35)
4. Tears Gone Dry (12:14)
5. The Silent Giant (5:22)
6. King For A Day (27:29)
