MAGNUM - Good Experiment

17. February 2016

Magnum

MAGNUM - Good Experiment

Since their reunion in 2001 Magnum, the pomp hardrockers from the Black Country, have been known for their consistently high quality. The fans were more than satisfied, but masterpieces like "Chase The Dragon" (1982) or even "On A Storyteller's Night" (1985) didn't come close. "Sacred Blood 'Divine' Lies", the eighth work since the reunification of the main protagonists Tony Clarkin and Bob Catley, will probably not be considered a Magnum classic one day. But that it is one of the most rewarding recordings of the second band phase is obvious. We talked to founding member Bob Catley about it.

eclipsed: Apart from your family, is there anyone close to you as your guitarist and sole songwriter, Tony Clarkin, with whom you've been working since 1972, except for the six-year silence at Magnum? In other words: Is Tony the most important person in your life?

Bob Catley: And in the Magnum-less time we also had the band Hard Rain together. If you are together in a group for four and a half decades, that speaks volumes. I don't necessarily think in the categories "best" and "most important", but I probably don't know many people as well as Tony does. Especially because for decades he has been writing the music and lyrics that I would write if I could. But - I'm just the singer.

eclipsed: Bands tend to lift their newest albums up into the sky. Therefore the question: How do you stand today to your penultimate record "Escape From The Shadow Garden"?

Catley: We've talked more than ten times over the decades and haven't I always said that Tony just wrote the best songs of his life? (laughs) And honestly, when we went into the studio with "Escape", I was just as much on fire as I am now with "Sacred Blood 'Divine' Lies". I like my job, singing Tony's songs. And from the reunion at the latest, we won't get involved in any big experiments. The Magnum sound's up. Tony changes the details here and there. Once it has a more modern orientation, it goes back a long way to our early years at another time. I still like Escape like all the other albums.

Lesen Sie mehr im eclipsed Nr. 178 (März 2016).