Band:	Magnum
Album:	Wings Of Heaven Live
Style:	Progressive rock
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Jeff

Disc I
01. When We Were Younger
02. Back Street Kid
03. Out Of The Shadows
04. Like Brothers We Stand
05. How Far Jerusalem
06. Dragons Are Real
07. All Englands Eyes
08. Vigilante
09. Kingdom of Madness

Disc II
01. Intro
02. Days of No Trust
03. Wild Swan
04. Start Talking Love
05. One Step Away
06. Must Have Been Love
07. Different Worlds
08. Pray For The Day
09. Don't Wake The Lion
10. Sacred Hour

Recorded last year during the UK shows of Magnum last tour, "Wings Of Heaven Live" is finally here to give the opportunity to the fans of this mythic combo to listen to a real live album. We already had some kind of live albums but it was not a pure long releases and not real full shows recorded on a CD. "Wings Of Heaven Live" fix this mistake, now be sure that you'll be able to live at home a real live performance by the British combo of melodic Hard Rock, and you know what? It simply rocks!

I will not talk a lot about the career of Magnum. It's been a while now (more than twenty years) that Magnum and Bob Catley release albums and play live. This band is cult, even if some people (and they're not so wrong) believe that their music can be kitsch on a side. For sure it doesn't sound really modern now that's right but if you like melodic Hard Rock and music from the 70's and 80's it still works really well! "Wings Of Heaven Live" features four songs of the last album of Magnum but it general some classics like "Kingdom of Madness" are there too! Really if you don't know the band, "Wings Of Heaven Live" is a good way to discover it!

One important thing with live albums is the quality of the recording and the performance of the band. Don't worry, the guys of Magnum are real monsters of Rock and played really well, really this is just topnotch especially when you know that the audience is not sleeping and sing along during all the songs! The recording is ok too but it's not the best one that I've ever seen. Sometime the sound is even a bit weak, though don't worry this is better than a lot of live releases and it's just not "perfect". With two CDs and and more than two hours of music, "Wings Of Heaven Live" doesn't suffer of any serious problems, this is definitely a must.

If you don't know Magnum, "Wings Of Heaven Live" is a good way to discover the band of one of the singers of the last Ayreon. If you're a fan this release is probably the one which was missing in your collection. A real live album was missing and this mistake is nicely corrected by Magnum and their label SPV. If you like to listen to old school melodic Hard Rock, "Wings Of Heaven Live" will be for you, don't wait anymore to buy it!