While it took a few listens to truly appreciate, with time Cynic’s jazz-infused 2009 progressive metal masterpiece “Traced In Air” fiercely reignited a passion in me for less extreme, more laid-back metal.
To my ears, what makes a metal album great isn’t the intensity, or the sophistication, or even the conviction of the performance; it’s the individual memorable moments, and “Traced In Air” is amazing in this regard.
But, despite a decent amount of digging around, I’ve never found an album that even came close to scratching the same itch for masterfully written non-extreme metal. That is, until I came across “Tragic Magic,” the fourth album by Vancouver-based progressive/heavy metal/hard rock outfit Spell, and my introduction to the band.
While “Tragic Magic” was released in late October, I only got around to listening to it this year, and I’m really kicking myself for not jumping on it sooner.
Last year was bursting at the seams with fantastic death metal from well-established bands, so it’s not surprising that a more obscure album, in a genre I generally regard as fairly boring, slipped through the cracks for me.
In spite of my divided attention, I’m glad I didn’t let this one get lost in my cluttered backlog, because “Tragic Magic” is a gem of an album.
Without booming drums and punchy riffs to fall back on, an album of this sort’s only escape from the black hole of musical mediocrity is good ol’ fashion songwriting. The melodies, the compositions, and the clever individual touches all take center stage — if the band can actually deliver.
Despite my tendency toward the exponentially more intense death and thrash metal genres, I was instantly captured by the elegant simplicity of “Tragic Magic.” It reminds me of Ghost in a lot of ways. “Tragic Magic” has a similar laid-back vibe, albeit without the sinister themes and context of Ghost’s earlier works.
With the clean vocals, sing-along choruses, and occasional implementation of synths, there are a lot of moments that won’t be out of place on a Top 40 radio station in the slightest.
While it is a profoundly tourist-friendly album, “Tragic Magic” still has enough technicality and power behind it to hold a hardened metalhead’s attention. Every song has memorable melody after memorable melody, and the band gracefully drifts from riff to riff without the slightest hint of discontinuity.
Another thing that I love, love, LOVE about this album is the bass guitar. The bass lines are easily discernible, with a pleasantly plucky sound that enhances the lead guitar work without dividing the listen’s attention.
The vocals are damn solid, too, adopting a relatively conventional rock vocal style. A lot of traditional metal and power metal bands opt for neo-operatic style vocals, which, while impressive when done well, can get cheesy and downright silly, especially when singers compete to out-falsetto each other.
Al Lester’s vocals are smooth enough to suit the album’s musicality perfectly, but are never over-performed to the point of melodrama, and there’s a decent amount of variety in his delivery across the album.
So, what’s the best track on the album? Impossible to pick — another hallmark of a superb album. Highlights include (but certainly aren’t limited to) the soaring melodies of “A Ruined Garden,” the thematic metamorphosis of “Souls In Chains,” the tragic laments of “Hades Embrace,” the chill vibes of “Watcher of the Seas.”
Fans of classic British heavy metal, particularly Iron Maiden, will froth at the mouth for this album, and fans of hard rock won’t feel out of their league. Hell, I’d even encourage more adventurous fans of pop to check this one out.
Really, the only group of listeners I’d potentially hesitate to point toward this one would be fans of extreme metal, and even then, only a subset of this fanbase. If clean vocals are an insurmountable barrier to entry, Darkane released a similarly excellent melodic-metal album in ‘22 with Inhuman Spirits, so perhaps your attention is better given to that… if you’re a wimp who can’t handle clean vocals.
But, for the musical masses, I urge you to give this one a try, even if metal isn’t usually your cup of tea. You may be surprised how casually enjoyable Tragic Magic is.
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If you enjoy Tragic Magic and want something else in the same vein, be sure to check out Traced in Air as well; the latter album is slightly more advanced listening, but you don’t need a degree in music theory to appreciate it, and it has some of my favorite guitar solos of all time.
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Spell is:
- Al Lester – Vocals, Guitars (lead), Drums
- Cam Mesmer – Vocals, Guitars (rhythm), Bass
—– EXTRAS —–
Bandcamp: https://spellofficial.bandcamp.com/album/tragic-magic
