The Wake of Magellan
| The Wake of Magellan | ||||
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| Studio album by Savatage | ||||
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Publication |
1997 |
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| Label (s) | Atlantic Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
13 |
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running time |
60 min 6 s |
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| occupation |
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The Wake of Magellan is a concept album of US -amerikanischen heavy metal band Savatage in 1997, which deals with various partly real events.
The story
This is the most complex of all of Savatage's concepts as the stories of several different characters are intertwined.
The main character is an old man named Hector Del-Fuego Magellan, who claims to be a descendant of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan . He has missed the chance to win the love of his life living in the same place. He is now tired of life and decides to end it. He has made the plan to drift with his boat out to sea and to death. On the way he sees his childhood sweetheart who is drinking wine in a café. As he continues on his way, he begins to communicate with the ocean. On the beach he finds a teenager who was given a heroin injection for his 18th birthday and who died of an overdose of the blackjack guillotine .
The funeral wreath of an Irish journalist named Veronica Guerin washes ashore. The ocean reveals that that journalist exposed the machinations of some drug lords and was killed for it.
A mother with her child meets Magellan. The boy wants the old captain's hourglass , but his mother pulls him on. Magellan, who is in mourning and weeping, drops the hourglass. This breaks. Magellan then sits in his boat and goes out to sea.
A stowaway is discovered on board the container freighter Mærsk Dubai and thrown overboard against all the rules of international shipping. By chance Magellan's descendant is in his death barge nearby and now begins to fight for his own for the sake of the shipwrecked life. In a storm, he asks God for at least one more night and a favorable wind back on land, despite everything he has done wrong in his life. The wind is actually turning. Magellan saves the shipwrecked man by entrusting him to an old friend and captain of a cargo ship that is taking him to America.
After the events of that night, Magellan decides to live and returns to the beach. There he finds the hourglass that someone has repaired for him.
background
The Wake of Magellan has as a central motif in different forms the statement that the meaning of life is the duty to do the right thing, even if it costs your life. The same motif can be found in the lyrics of Chance on the Handful of Rain album.
Producer Paul O'Neill was responsible for the concept of the album. The story of the stowaways on board the Mærsk Dubai cargo ship of the Mærsk Line shipping company is based on a true story and was also implemented relatively closely. The reporter's story is also true.
Unlike the previous albums, Savatage works on this album with different musical themes that appear in the songs.
On this album, for the first time since Hall of the Mountain King , there has been no change in the line-up compared to the previous album . In the United States, the album was only released in 1998 with three bonus tracks.
Track list
- The Ocean - 1:33
- Welcome - 2:11
- Turns to Me - 6:01
- Morning Sun - 5:49
- Another Way - 4:35
- Blackjack Guillotine - 4:33
- Paragons of Innocence - 5:33
- Complaint in the System (Veronica Guerin) - 2:37
- Underture - 3:52
- The Wake of Magellan - 6:10
- Anymore - 5:16
- The Storm - 3:45
- The Hourglass - 8:05
US bonus tracks
- Somewhere in Time / Alone You Breathe - 4:37
- Sleep - 4:16
- Stay - 2:48
Bonustracks (Germany)
- This Is Where You Should Be - 4:55
- Desiree (acoustic piano version) - 3:53
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.savatage.com/bandinfo/albums/wakeofmagellan/story.html
- ↑ The Wake of Magellan (album) , Allmusic, accessed September 27, 2016
- ↑ Overboard. June 27, 2006, archived from the original on October 18, 2008 ; accessed on December 30, 2015 .
- ↑ http://www.savatage.com/bandinfo/albums/wakeofmagellan/veronicaguerin.html