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Six Magics - The Secrets Of An Island review



Reviewer:
8.5

9 users:
8
Band: Six Magics
Album: The Secrets Of An Island
Release date: 2003


01. The Secrets
02. Chaos And Fury
03. Rising Of The Island
04. Chiloé, The Creation
05. Endless Waiting
06. Calueche (The Flying Dutchman)
07. Goddess Of The Seas
08. Cradle Of Sorrow
09. Brutal Sacrilege
10. Trusted Steps In The Forest
11. Trauco (Seed Of Pain)
12. Slave Of The Sky
13. Hopeless Return
14. Frozen Lips In The Night
15. The Basilisk
16. ?Another Night
17. The Secrets Of An Island

We have an ambitious project from my neighbor country, Chile. This country, as many might know, has a strong Metal scene, it has become so big that it can be compared to the one existing in Brazil.
I remember some years ago, a friend of mine traveled to Chile to visit his brother, that lives there, when he came back, he brought me a Demo tape he bought there, it was a band called Six Magics, and the Demo was "Trilogía De Un Guerrero" (Trilogy Of A Warrior), the tape had 4 songs, and to be honest I wasn't impressed at all.

Years passed by, and just know I noticed that Six Magics had a professional release, not their first one, but their second, in the years I lost track of the band, they released a full-length called "Dead Kings Of The Unholy Valley", my sources tell me that it was another typical epic-tale-of-sorcery-and-swords, bah, what a waste of time.

Anyway, seems like Six Magics decided to be original and compose an album with a completely different theme than previous efforts, "Secrets Of An Island" deals with Chilean Mythology, and more specific, Mythology from island of Chiloé, like the title suggest.

The presentation and layout of the album is great, very professional, has a very thick booklet, with lyrics, and a little explanation of each song, each song being a myth of the aftermentioned island.
I have only one complain towards the booklet, each song has a in one page the lyric, and in other, a little explanation and a drawing regarding the song, well, is not exactly a drawing, but a computer generated graphic, and let me tell you, they're totally awful, really lousy graphic designer, you should fire him for the next record guys, and drawings would have added a lot more than those graphics, get me? Mythology = CG graphics or Mythology = Ancient-like drawings, see my point?

Anyway, on with the music, the music is a mix of Rhapsody with Therion, the band uses big choirs in almost every songs, and the Power Metal is very reminiscent of the Italians, but also, some songs contain folk elements from Chile, which adds a nice touch to the music.
17 songs, 6 instrumental, some songs feature elements like spoken passages, female vocals and even some grunts, so you know you have plenty to choose from.
Some of the compositions are almost progressive sounding, with intricate drumming that makes it hard to listen at first, after a few spins you'll get used to the sound, and you'll love it.

Some of my favorite songs are, "Calueche (The Flying Dutchman)" , "Chiloé, The Creation" , the female Vs male duet in "Trauco (Seed Of Pain)" and the epic closer, clocking more than 11 minutes "The Secrets Of An Island".
Six Magics are on the path to greatness, don't doubt that, makes me glad that bands in South America are thinking big, and delivering such ambitious projects for the world to enjoy, I'm pretty sure that the next we hear about Six Magics, they'll be signed with a big label.

Written by Undercraft | 21.04.2004



Staff review by
Jeff
Rating:
8.0
What a surprising album!!! "The Secret Of An Island" comes from South America, most particularly from Chile. That's not very common from an European to listen to bands from Chile even if the Metal scene there seems to be really active but I'm not even sure to know any names from this country. Now at least I know Six Magics and I'm glad to know them because they did something great with this album believe me?

"The Secret Of An Island" is an ambitious album, the band in fact chose to do a real symphonic Metal. Don't try to do any comparison with Nightwish for example, we are maybe nearer of Therion if you want, and even if it's really hard to compare these bands, they are both really unique, at least you have a first idea. But before that I talk about the music, I must talk about the artwork of the booklet and the cover. I'm sure that some other reviewers already said that in their reviews, but this is maybe the worst artwork that I ever seen. I'm serious only because of the awful cover I'm sure that a lot of people missed this excellent album. And that's not only the cover all the entire booklet is awful this is a shame, this kind of artworks just kill an album. Please guys for your next album call a better art designer, we have a great one who works with us on Metalstorm, and you can call him if you want.
But let's talk about the music now, Six Magic plays a great symphonic metal, a kind of neo classical music with the power of guitars but also with a great symphonic orchestra and especially some impressive symphonic choirs. With a very good original story this concept album is really impressive for a first try, all the songs are original, very well written with some folk elements or classical music in it. All this music mixed with some nice Power Metal riffs in addition gives an amazing catchy result. the Six Magic absolutely deserves to catch some fans outside of Chile and anyway when I listen to this album I'm sure that we will hear a lot of this combo in the future.
The production of the album is also very professional the booklet if we don't look the artwork is perfect, with lyrics, some words about the story on each page, a lot of pics, some definitions to give explanations on the protagonists of the story etc. Plus the recording and the mixing work are perfect, that's good to see that a young band can do that, that's classy, like the whole album?

A great first album, a lot of bands try to do symphonic music, but not a lot are able to do something with such quality. Really I recommend you this album, forget the cover and listen to the music, that's magic. A must for all the fans of Power and Symphonic music, we want more !!!
published 12.02.2005 | Comments (0)



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