King For A Day is the fourth album from Norwegian prog outfit Magic Pie and if you’re into your prog, particularly the more old-school style.
The best thing about King For A Day is that although there’s many cries back to prog from yesteryear, the music still feels fresh and modern rather than simply sounding like a band trying to echo music from years gone by. Fourth track Years Gone By is an adventurous piece filled with showy big solos, wonderfully technical instrumental lines and a whole host of different vocal styles and ideas – you never know quite what to expect with each new twist and turn that gets presented to you within the song!
Admittedly closing and title track King For A Day is more of a hard slog; clocking in at over 27 minutes in duration, it’s difficult to remain focused on the track from start to finish and it does feel a little like overkill – it’s like the band are purposely eking it out for as long as possible and it does seem like a good few minutes could be shaved from the song with no drastic consequences.
As a whole, King For A Day is a great album and certainly one that deserves your closer attention. It’s just a shame that the album doesn’t quite end on the high that it so dearly deserves.
7/10
