Hundred Year Flood

Magellan

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 10, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Magna Carta
• ASIN: B00006IZOJ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #202,920 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Sun Herald Marquee, August 2002
Listeners will this album fulfilling if they enjoy complex music played with taste, verve, and even occasional restraint.

Product Description
Hundred Year Flood. The idea that this is the big one, the one generations will recurringly talk about, the one that swept away everything. Prodigious progressive legends Trent and Wayne Gardner and their family had something taken away as well: a brother and a son, swept away in the heat of battle back in Viet Nam. The story is here, as Hundred Year Flood's opening track 'The Great Goodnight'. It is graphic and emotionally crushing. It is touching and it resonates a sort of timeless spirit-swift knowledge. But the event, in itself, as rare and poignant as it is, is not the Hundred Year Flood. The term refers directly to the act of just talking about it, letting an amazing story such as this get told. 'The Great Goodnight' is unarguably the Magellan masterwerk thus far. It is a swelling, rumbling wellspring of emotion and it alone seals the record's legacy as a neo-progressive rock classic. Along with Wayne for the harrowing ride are guitarists Robert Berry and George Bellas, the former providing a rock bed of tasteful rhythm guitar, the latter, upon Mike Varney's recommendation, providing the flash and fire. Drumming on the entire album is courtesy of seasoned New York City session god Joe Franco who pounds his way into the sound picture with force and finesse. But back to 'The Great Goodnight'. The tale of Jack Elroy Gardner's death, at the age of 21, will not be expanded upon here. The lyrics tell all, and the heartbreaking photographs and news clippings tell even more. The first song "The Great Goodnight," which has 13 sections, begins with Gentle Giant like vocal harmonies and progresses into mellower piano/vocal section than the Deep Purple like organ kicks in and the rest is history. The great transitions of Pink Floyd like moments to Dream Theater like hard rocking sections to Genesis and Yes like classic prog rock are melodic and smooth making them enormous and not to mention his production is quite a superb. Intense leads, cool vocal melodies, odd time grooves gets the tune rockin' for over 30 minutes making this tune perhaps the best Magellan to this date. "Family Jewel" is a beautiful instrumental featuring great Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson on flute and Trent Gardner on keys. "Brother Keeper" is a cool rockin' tune with more fresh progressive stuff, heavy guitars, cool keys, rockin' grooves and nice changes.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magellan just continues to grow, September 10, 2002

By A Customer

The fourth Magellan album. And, as we are used to from them, it compares to no other band. As far as I'm concerned Trent Gardner's band is both the very edge and the very heart of progressive rock. Once again, this album has it all, the vocal harmonies, soft guitars, grinding guitars, keyboards (a progressive rock rap?). But the sound has matured a lot. That is propably because the subject of the main song is more serious (or at least more personal) than on the previous albums. This first song, the Great Goodnight (over 30 minutes long!) is the story of Trents brother Jack, who died in Vietnam, when Trent was only four years old. Impressive, that is all I can say about it.
There are only two more songs on the album, so let's not forget those. Family Jewels is an instrumental track where Trent Gardner tries out his new synthesizers, and where he is helped by Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) on his flute. A funny track. The third track, Brother's Keeper, has also all the qualities of a progressive rock epic. It is over 10 minutes long, and sounds a bit more like Magellans previous album (Test of Wills), a bit more metal-like, more aggressive sounding. It is about how people take care only of themselves, instead of being their "Brother's Keeper".
In conclusion: SUPER ALBUM! I can find no negative points whatsoever. OK, I'm a big Magellan fan, so maybe I'm a bit biased, but still. Get this album!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This disc is awesome!, October 16, 2003

By	Jaime Patterson (Fort Lauderdale, FL) - See all my reviews

To put it simply, the first track ( of three ) is the best track. It clocks in at about 35 minutes at is brilliant all the way. Similar in concept to the way classical composers composed music, the track " The Great Goodnight" uses a lyrical and melodic theme in many different ways throughout the entire song.Most prog bands will just throw one complex riff after another and call it a song. (Dream Theater, Andromeda come instantly to mind). The lyric in " The Great Goodnight" is inspired by his late brother Jack who was killed in Vietnam. It's Trent recalling and dealing with the vague memories of his brother's death and the impact it had on his family that inspires the entire piece. It's very bold and even unprecendted for ANY band to do that. Trent composed numerous different and creative ways of repeating that same motif throughout the tune.It's truly inspiring and touching too. There's great vocals everywhere and new drummer Joe Franco gets great drum sounds ala Marillion's classic, "Clutching At Straws".
The next track is called, " Family Jewels". This is a track of Ian Anderon ( Jethro Tull ) playing flute over a organ pedal tone. Then Trent comes in with some cool keyboard parts. Nothing dramatic here, just fun to listen to.
The last track, despite it's title, has no connection to The Great Goodnight. The track is " Brother's Keeper " and is more commentary than anything. Grammy nominated bassist and stick player Tony Levin lays down some deep, funky bass on the track. It clocks in about 10 minutes and it's groovin' the whole time! Wait over a minute or so at the end of the tune and you'll hear Trent give a brief dedication to his lost brother Jack. You'll have to sit through silence to get there...
Forget any idiotic nay sayers ( that dork from Minneapolis being a great example ) and buy this album. I don't regret for a minute buying my copy. Listen to the great compositions going on all you'll see what I mean. This disc is truly AWESOME!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Moving Tribute to a Lost Brother, September 19, 2002

By	Kevin Delgadillo "Scotts Valley Cat" (Scotts Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having been a Magellan fan since their first CD "Hour of Restoration" and considering the fact that it had been 5 years since their excellent "Test of Wills", I really looked forward to the new release "Hundred Year Flood" (HYF)

Upon first listen I was a bit surprised: gone are the overly technical instrumental passages that seek to simply say "hey I can write and play this kind of complex music" (which I enjoy by the way). Instead, HYF focuses on telling the heart-wrenching true story about Trent Gardner's older brother Jack who died in Vietnam when Trent was only 4 years old. It's about Trent's learning about what happened (they didn't talk about it growing up) and how he remembers the important things about his brother (reading the lyrics while listening to the music literally made me well up with tears - it is so sad) and how he wished he could have known him. This is a monumental effort from Magellan - definitely their most mature. The music is simply beautiful and sweeps you thru various moods (mostly sad though given the topic). Very moving, and it gets better with each listen.

The 34 minute opus "The Great Goodnight" is the centerpiece. The other two tracks are throwaways in my opinion. One is a pointless keyboard tune, the last "Brother's Keeper" sounds like something that did not make it onto Test of Wills and isn't that great to begin with. Oh well, The Great Goodnight is full of excellent musicianship, songwriting, harmonies, and solid drumming courtesy of double-bass master Joe Franco.

I heartily recommend HYF to all Magellan fans and to all who appreciate prog. This, Spock's Beard's "Snow", and Planet X's "Moon Babies" are the best CDs of the year.