DisAgreement Online

Although Magnolia haven’t been around for that long, their debut album Cynthia managed to enchant me from the get-go. The idea to combine doom metal with fado vocals is not a new one, as their compatriots from Sinistro have shown in the past. But apart from those, I can’t think of any other such band, and it would also be farfetched to accuse Magnolia of being copycats.

Magnolia consist of the three musicians Filipa Pinto, Nuno Gonçalo and Paulo Bucho, all of them coming from the small town of Sintra, close to Lisbon. There is a forest with a mystic altar, and that’s what Cynthia is about. The lyrics are in Portuguese which is why I can’t tell more about them. From a musical point of view, Magnolia perfectly insert a gloomy mood into the subject matter and the songwriting too. This starts already with the intro Ode which is accompanied by rain and night bird sounds, while an eerie glockenspiel sets the mood for what is to come. The main attraction is vocalist Filipa who has opera training and knows how to use her voice to fullest effect in the deep as in the high registers. She has a very firm voice that can be used in various ways. Sometimes she sounds melancholic, then angry, often quite intense and always incredibly fascinating. The instrumentation is subdued and mostly stays in the background to give the voice all the room it needs. The violin harmonises well with the vocals and highlight the singer’s talents even more. Despite the songs’ often generous lengths, Magnolia take care to add enough twists and turns so that nothing ever gets boring. Occasionally they turn to folk, adding a medieval atmosphere, as can be heard on the ballad Magia de Cynthia and also on the long Trilogio do Obituario where we also get monk chants. My personal highlight is Abismo which starts quietly before gaining momentum, and then ending with progressive and psychedelic elements. It doesn’t make sense to dissect each and ever song, because Cynthia is a total work of art that deserves to be listened to in one piece.

Magnolia describe their sound as Fadoom, which is actually quite a good pun. The band is still at the beginning of their career, and I can highly recommend them to everyone looking for something quite unique. Despite running for over seventy minutes, there are no weak moment to be made out. Repeated listening will let you discover something new again and again. Consider me hooked!