The music on Seven is very much like a mixture of Yes and Renaissance. I’d probably label the music as symphonic prog. Seven consists of seven tracks—each track dealing with one of the seven deadly sins. Every track on this album is over ten minutes except for one five minute track. I was hoping that there wasn’t a case of "long track syndrome" (that is, making a long track for the sake of making a long track) on this album—and fortunately there wasn’t! Every track on here is the appropriate length I think.

One element that really adds to the overall sound on Seven is the fact that Magenta have used a real orchestra. It’s really put to good use too (for instance on "Greed", but I’ll get to that later). The guitars on this album are really superb. You can tell that the guitarists Chris Fry and Martin Rosser play with a lot of emotion. The solo during "Sloth" is one of the most emotional solo’s I’ve heard. And then of course you have Christina Booth. Next to Annie Haslam, I would say Christina is one of my favorite vocalists in prog music. Her voice on this album is just wonderful to hear.

As for the songs, well, they’re almost all just fantastic. The only track that I don’t really care for is "Anger", which is actually the five minute song. It’s just a little to boring for me honestly. Every other track though is great. I don’t really think I can pick a favorite track, though some of my favorite moments are the vocals in "Envy", the dramatic opening of "Lust", the strings in "Greed", the waltz-like ending of "Greed", the guitars in "Sloth", and the overall atmosphere in "Sloth". There’s really nothing negative I have to say about any of the tracks minus "Anger". They’re just all really well crafted and aurally pleasing.

For those are looking for something innovative and different in prog should look elsewhere. The music here is nothing new, but it’s played and constructed very well. Also, if you’re into female vocalists at all or just into prog music, I would highly recommend this album.

9 / 10