kluseba I discovered this record by pure coincidence as I recently walked into my local record store and found this album somewhere hidden in the metal section. I thought that the cover was beautiful and that the songs and their lengths sounded promising to me and I gave this record a try. In the end, this recorded easily delivered more than I expected and offers amazing progressive rock and metal music with a multitude of influences.

In the opening epic killer "Estadium Nacional", you hear that the classic progressive rock bands such as "Yes" and "Genesis" largely influenced this band and this track could easily fit one of those band's best albums back in the seventies. From the beginning on, one realizes that "Magellan" honour their influences and know what good progressive music is. Further in this album, I recognized also a couple of modern influences. This band must have been a major influence for bands such as "Dream Theater", "Ayreon" and even "Tool". What pushes this band above the other ones is the fact that the sound of this record is much warmer and easier to follow than the sound of the mentioned progressive metal bands. In fact, the mixture between classic progressive rock and more recent progressive metal is almost equally divided on this great record that grows more and more on me with a slight advantage for the progressive rock touches.

This album impressed me so much that I paid around twenty-five bucks for it and decided to discover the other records of the band. Calm piano and keyboard passages like in the beginning of "Waterfront Weirdos" are mixed with epic and yet commercial progressive rock passages like the middle passages of "Estadium Nacional", modern and atmospheric passages like the opening of "Virtual Reality", hectic classic progressive rock passages like in the beginning of "Storms And Mutiny" and harder metal passages like in the closing progressive banger "Under The Wire". The songs all have a great and coherent flow but there still many details to get discovered. I prefer not to point out any particular song as the album works very well as a whole and all songs have something interesting to deliver no matter if they have a length of less than two or more than eleven minutes. Just take your earphones, lay down and discover this brilliant album.

This album is a truly addicting drug and should be in the collection of anybody that likes either progressive rock or progressive metal music. This highly diversified and energetic album is my discovery of the year until now and helps me to get more and more addicted to progressive music in general. I would even recommend this album to anybody that isn't too much into progressive stuff yet and wants to get a first high quality overview as this album could be the beginning of a voyage of the grandest kind.

Andyman1125 Massive and majestic.

Trent Gardner seems to have this thing for long songs. Every album, there is at least one song (at the very least) that has a 10+ minute long song. On nearly all his side projects, he writes really long songs. On Hundred Year Flood, he writes a 35 minute long long song. Wow. Taking up well over half of the album, the epic piece of music shows the band's intense musical stamina and songwriting ability. The album is a concept album about the Gardner brothers' older brother who died in Vietnam. Overall, the album provides a fantastic ride with great dynamics, really cool sounds and a great Magellan-esque sound.

I'd heard many good things about Magellan, one being a big influence of theirs was Dream Theater. I tried to find their best album, which was difficult, so I picked one at random, the Hundred Year Flood. Seeing as I have an affinity for long playing tracks, I was in love with the 35 minute long The Great Goodnight, and not only because of its exceptionally long play. It opens with a great vocal performance, which adds a nice variety. The entire song is great, with repeating elements that tie the song together nicely. The one negative part of this song is that, seeing as it is a personal album (dedicated to his brother who dies in Vietnam), the vocals are personal and sometimes do not fit the music very well. The lyrics break away from the typical virtuosity of progressive rock, despite that the music is absolutely wonderful. Overall, The Great Goodnight is one of the better 30+ minute tracks I've heard, and I've heard more than you would expect. Fantastic instrumental sections, great part changes, and a great linear structure make this a staple in a long track collection.

Next is an instrumental Family Jewels, which has an excellent flute solo introduction, with a keyboard section at the end. Overall, the song shows the band's more folky and earthy song, balancing the big track's massive grandeur.

As a great ending, Brother's Keeper tops the album off nicely. It was featured on their myspace at the time I discovered them. The song was one that helped me get into the band. It has great musical parts and better lyrics than The Great Goodnight; it's hard to tell if their actually personal, which is good. On my copy of the album, there is a one-minute space between a message from Trent telling his listeners who the album is dedicated.... I think the one minute is unnecessary, 20 seconds or so would have been more appropriate.

ALBUM OVERALL: Wow. This album features a massive 35 minute epic, tending to my huge affinity for lengthy tracks. The whole album is a beautiful display of music, featuring lush keyboard work, great guitar work, and some really great melodic and rhythmic work. Although the lyrics may seem a little off at times, they do have a really great message. Overall, this album is really great and I recommend it for new Magellan fans, as long as you are an experienced prog listener and can stomach a 35 minute long track! 4- stars.