British rock band MAGNUM will release a new studio album, “Here Comes The Rain”, on January 12, 2024 via Steamhammer/SPV. The official lyric video for the LP’s second single, “The Seventh Darkness”, can be seen below.
“The Seventh Darkness” includes some awesome brass sections courtesy of guest musicians Chris “BeeBe” Aldridge (saxophone) and Nick Dewhurst (trumpet),which lend the song brilliance and shape.
MAGNUM guitarist/songwriter Tony Clarkin states: “The recordings were great fun, especially the moment when Chris‘s sax took the lead and my guitar responded. A real highlight on this album!”
The album’s highly inspired artwork is once more designed by the great Rodney Matthews, who has already created a number of MAGNUM sleeves to support the band’s atmospherically dense music. Says Clarkin: “The back cover features a kind of avian battalion in attack mode, which I think is a great allegory!”
Apart from MAGNUM‘s typical trademarks, “Here Comes The Rain” also holds a number of thoroughly pleasant surprises. First single “Blue Tango” is a real riff-rock number that makes you want to move your feet.
There is no doubt about it: “Here Comes The Rain” sees the MAGNUM lineup consisting of singer Bob Catley, Clarkin, keyboardist Rick Benton, bassist Dennis Ward and drummer Lee Morris, once again succeed in creating an outstanding, colorful, varied and inspired new studio album.
“Everyone played their part without me dictating anything,” Clarkin enthuses, “everyone just instinctively played what their inspiration told them.” It’s a good thing that these superb musicians can rely on their intuition!
“Here Comes The Rain” track listing:
01. Run Into The Shadows
02. Here Comes The Rain
03. Some Kind Of Treachery
04. After The Silence
05. Blue Tango
06. The Day He Lied
07. The Seventh Darkness
08. Broken City
09. I Wanna Live
10. Borderline
Late last month, it was announced that Clarkin has been diagnosed with a rare and incurable spinal condition. As a result of his diagnosis, MAGNUM has canceled its previously announced spring 2024 tour.
On December 18, Clarkin released the following message via social media: “I’m afraid I have some bad news for you guys. Over the past year or so I’ve been bothered by increasingly bad pains in my neck and head. For a long time the docs couldn’t work out why, but now they’ve found out and it’s gonna mean some changes.
“I have developed a rare spinal condition. It’s not life-limiting, but it can be degenerative in some people, and sadly it’s not curable. There are treatments that may help but we don’t know how good they’ll be.
“With the nature of touring and the weight of electric guitars this means there’s no way I would be able to play the scheduled shows in the spring. We’ve taken the decision to cancel the tour, rather than mess anyone around trying to postpone in the hope things might get better in the short term. Bob didn’t feel it would be right doing it with a dep at this time.
“This is not gonna be the end of MAGNUM, but the future might have to be a bit different, so please bear with us while we try and figure out what I can and can’t do moving forward.
“I’m really sorry for everyone who’d already bought tickets, it goes without saying that I’m absolutely gutted that I’m not gonna be able to play for you.
“Cheers and I hope I’ll be able to see you all again soon.”
The rest of MAGNUM added in a separate statement: “We are obviously all extremely upset at this development, especially so close to Christmas. We can’t thank you all enough for your support over the years and hope you’ll stick with us through this too. We really hope you’re all going to love the new album ‘Here Comes The Rain’ out on the 12th January 2024 and this won’t spoil it for you.
“Please everyone contact your ticket reseller for a refund. We’ll be back…”
Formed in Birmingham over 50 years ago by Catley and Clarkin, MAGNUM have cemented themselves as one of the U.K.’s finest hard rock exports, a largely American dominated genre.
With their unique melodic skill and tasteful instrumentation, the group have released 22 studio albums over the years, with their most recent, “The Monster Roars”, arriving in 2022 to great critical acclaim.
Photo credit: Rob Barrow