Valarius
When I first got this album, I played it once and didn't really pay much attention to it, thinking it was just a typical 80's AOR album. Although upon further listening I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised.
There is a mixture of good/bad songs on this album, and a lot of the lyrics are pretty cheesy and the singing over-the-top, but this isn't really that bad an album, and some of the better songs are in fact, really good.
Some of the highlights for me include 'Reborn', 'The Battle', 'If I Could Live Forever', 'All of my Life' and quite surprisingly the acoustic version of 'Foolish Heart' (which is a bonus track found on the remastered version). Unfortunately for all the good songs, there's also a pretty tacky one to complement it. In this case songs like 'Freebird', 'Stayin' Alive' and all the other bonus tracks could have been left off with no complaint from me.
After repeated hearing, I have to say I do like this album though, and Magnum has definitely grown on me. The guitar and keyboards sound very typical of similar 80's AOR bands, which can at times sound a bit annoying to me, but overall this is a good album from a very underrated band.