Let me start this review by putting my cards on the table and stating that I've been a huge Magenta fan since discovering them around 2006 (acoustic gig, supporting Pendragon I think.) I have since collected everything they have ever produced, have seen them live numerous times and got to know them quite well too.
I should also add that they're another band that I loved long before I discovered that they, or rather Rob Reed (the musical genius behind the band) were keen on surround sound. So I was near ecstatic to discover that they had brought a version of Metamorphosis out in 5.1 To be honest this was an album that I found quite hard to get into and it didn't fully click into place until I saw them play most of it live at a gig many years ago. From that moment on I rate the album as one of their best. Rob is clearly a huge fan of Yes and much of his earlier work pays very close homage to that band. Metamorphosis is a different beast; the influences are there but this is absolutely all Rob Reed, though it's clearly something Yes could have produced had they carried on writing good material
My biggest single comment on this album is
don't be put off by the fact that it's only DD The mix is absolutely staggering. The channels are very discrete, very clear and make phenomenal use of the surround field - the instrumentation/vocals are meticulously placed, without being in any way gimmicky. It's easily the best DD I have heard by a country mile - I have no idea how Rob has pulled this off. In my opinion the guy is up there with the great Mr Wilson in terms of his understanding of how surround should be mixed and used for complex music. We have everything in this album; drum rolls that pan, guitars and synths doubled across channels, layered vocals, delay effects in the surround field and it's all done to fit perfectly with the phrasing/feel of the songs. Pure magic.
My rating is a very, very solid nine and I have marked it down only because there's no hi-rez format and, actually, I feel very stingy doing even that!
To close; I really, really hope Rob continues his commitment to surround mixes. To my knowledge he's done 5 titles in surround to date: Three Magenta studio albums: this one, the re-issue of "Seven" and the "Chameleon Project", the live DVD "Magenta Live at Real World" (which also includes a bonus 5.1 mix of "Joe" from the album "Home") and, of course, the incredible Kompendium (which is in 24/96) In my opinion all are top quality and are worthy additions to any surround collection.