4 out of 5 Stars!

To me, German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell always seemed almost a cross between Yngwie Malmsteen and Uli Jon Roth, especially since his band produces music in a comparable vein as the other esteemed guitarists. On this album, which also features seasoned vocalist Jeff Scott Soto (Malmsteem/Talisman/W.E.T.), the comparisons between Malmsteen and Pell seem even more appropriate.

Regardless, Magic—Pell’s sixth studio release—is one of my favorite offerings from, what I believe, is his most creative, most exciting period, the later half of the ’90s and into the new century.

With terrific songs such as the epic title track and “The Clown is Dead,” along with driving Power Metal tunes such as “Light in the Sky,” “Nightmare,” “Turned to Stone,” and “Prisoners of the Sea” all showing the band’s high-energy prowess, I find myself playing this album more often than many of his more recent releases, with Magic easily falling into my “Top 5” favorites of Pell’s seventeen studio albums since 1989.

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