Eleventh studio release for 'Savatage' and unsurprisingly they concoct another wonderfully rich concept album, which in its most basic, is based around the fictional memories and tribulations of an old sailor Hector Del-Fuego Magellan. Personally I think some of the compositions are a little similar to 'Dead Winter Dead' and 'Handful of Rain', and at times I'm not totally convinced by 'Zak Stevens'' approach, but that aside 'Jon Oliva' and 'Paul O' Neill' have penned another breathtakingly layered concept album. The line-up thankfully is the same as 'Dead Winter Dead' with 'Chris Caffery' and 'Al Pitreli' providing more sublime guitars, while 'Jon Oliva' again lends his vocals to a couple of tracks, as well as gracing the album with his usual superlative keyboard skills.

'The Wake of Magellan' opens a tad pretentiously with two intros, the first is the instrumental titled 'The Ocean, a melodic piano driven piece which leads into the short opener 'Welcome', a bombastic, theatrical heavy number. The first real track 'Turns to Me' commences subtly and harmoniously, but soon the pace is lifted and develops into a high-class rocker, 'Zak Stevens' produces some very nice changes of styles to suit the differing tempo, while the riffs and solos from 'Chris Caffery' and 'Al Pitreli' are just another highlight. Following in similar fashion is the multi layered 'Morning Sun', the song writing is a little similar to the previous track, but the instrumentation and closing fret work is just superb. 'Jon Oliva' makes his first vocal appearance on 'Another Way', he does a solid job too, not the finest song present but there's a good solid groove and more choice 'Al Pitreli' guitar licks. Superior still is the darker, brooding 'Blackjack Guillotine', a slightly more modern sounding rocker, and although a little languid in places, closes with a stunning instrumental break, driven by some seriously good guitar work. 'Paragons of Innocence' ensues and once again 'Jon Oliva' provides vocals, perhaps not as catchy as 'Another Way' but still a pretty decent affair, 'Jon's' gritty approach breaks the album up nicely, although I'm not sure about the Rap style delivery. 'Zak' returns to the lead role with the more contemporary sounding 'Complaint in the System', a short punchy number, while the instrumental 'Underture' is a splendid representation of 'Savatage's' musical talents- great stuff. Next up is the title track, a typical post 90's Savatage cut, theatrical influence, superb guitars, layered vocals and all terrifically penned, this one can't fail to please. The momentum falls for the ballad come rocker 'Anymore', personally I find this too similar to many previous ''Tage' songs of this styling, solid stuff all round but nothing we haven't heard before, 'Zak's' more aggressive delivery doesn't suit the song particularly well in places either. Improvements are quickly made with the stunning instrumental 'The Storm', an appropriately moody piece which is just driven by the glorious fret work of 'Al Pitreli' and 'Chris Caffery'- superb. The concept bows out with the epic 'The Hourglass' a typical quality, layered and ever changing piece that 'Savatage' excel at, this begins brooding, only to develop into a more theatrical piece, exceptional in places but regrettably tales off towards the ends in a melodic no-mans-land.

The first of the two bonus tracks 'This is Where You Should Be', was originally recorded during the 'Hall of the Mountain King' sessions, it's really nice to hear 'Jon Oliva' sing this power ballad, he must have been on the top of his game around this time and fails to disappoint here. The second track is an acoustic piano version of 'Desiree', the song was originally written for the album 'Streets', but this rendition was recorded in '97 and features 'Zak' on vocals and all told is a pretty decent ballad.

A difficult album to rate, I'd say it's about on-a-par with 'Dead Winter Dead', a little uneven in place, superb in others- I'll leave it for you to decided?