This is Magic Sword’s third album. and their fourth record if you include an EP released a short while ago. Each record comes with a comic book telling an overarching story that the band have put to music, so in a way its the mother of all concept albums that even out-does progressive rock bands like Yes (Magic Sword’s first album was double vinyl, so was already tapping in to the progressive mindset).
The band are part of a whole load of groups, like Carpenter Brut etc who have been labelled synthwave that has exploded in the last couple of years. Live (and I was lucky enough to see their only London show so far), they are three guys wearing hoods and shining masks who produce a glowing sword through parts of the performance to accentuate parts of the story they are telling.
It’s a unique way for three masked individuals to connect with audience, and when I witnessed them I could imagine them eventually playing large venues with some kind of Roger Dean-type stage set up that would really transport you to their world. Musically, it borrows from John Carpenter soundtracks and early eighties synth stuff, but there is also a smattering of space disco and a little bit of Rush, and the melodies are always there and this is what makes the band so enjoyable.
“Empress” is a rolling tune with the arpeggiator giving it a lolloping rhythm before the steady drum beat kicks and we head straight into the French space disco category. Here, the melody reminds me of bands like Milkways from the late seventies and even a little bit of The Droids. Deep notes herald in “Shores Of Oblivion”, a piece that hints a Kraftwerk’s “Kometenmelodie” at times thanks to its use of space and drones. The sequencer slowly builds and bubbles away, drums clatter occasionally and it’s a brooding interlude of a piece that sounds menacing. With “Prophecy”, Magic Sword are back to some uplifting disco music with a feelgood walking bassline that sounds like its come off a Jean-Pierre Massiera record. It’s a wonderful closing piece for the second side, with a tune that gets you humming along and wanting to flip the record over.
“Corruption” kicks in side two with a big Blade Runner-sounding sequencer pulsing over the top of cold synth pads and crashes. E-bowed guitar adds a haunting fugue like you are entering one of Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s Metabarons landscapes. More space disco beats get “Ritual” grooving with the kind of subtle guitar work that adds funk under a brooding bassline and a catchy synth tune. “A New Quest” has an epic eighties barbarians movie feel to it and could have easily been on a soundtrack for a film of that period, and it makes you tap your toes along to its wonderful synth line. Again, it reminds me a lot of some of the more obscure space disco albums like Automat‘s or the two Space Art records, and this what makes it so glorious.
Magic Sword are certainly one of the best new wave of synthwave bands out there, but I am also a sucker for high-concept records as well, so their stuff is just perfect for me. The album works as a standalone record, so you don’t really have to get the first two to immerse yourself in the whole Magic Sword concept, but I strongly urge that you do as they are fantastic releases. This comes in a limited “empress” blue vinyl with its comic book, so is an object of great beauty as well.
-Gary Parsons-
