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Magus Image
Metascore
83

Universal acclaim - based on 8 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

  • Summary: The fifth full-length release for the Baton Rouge-based doom/sludge metal band was recorded by James Whitten.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Oct 19, 2018
    90
    Magus captures well the force of its players throughout its near 90-minute runtime, the culmination of which occurs in the album’s final track, Supremacy.
  2. Sep 4, 2018
    90
    Patient, attentive listeners that take the time to find Magus’s secrets will be justly rewarded, as there’s a lot to be dissected here.
  3. Aug 31, 2018
    80
    Thou’s consistency makes their records somewhat overwhelming. Magus’ arrival via Sacred Bones makes it likely to become many listeners’ first Thou album. Whether it is suitable for such a position, given the more concise appeal of the band’s first three full-lengths, is questionable. Nonetheless, much like the question of whether this is the band’s finest work to date, such doubts should not distract from the fact that Magus is a successful affirmation of Thou’s place as being amongst the greatest heavy bands on the planet.
  4. Aug 31, 2018
    80
    The album is their most sonically focused statement yet, primarily consisting of lengthy dirges with up-front growled lyrics that challenge concepts of ego and identity.
  5. Nov 1, 2018
    80
    Magus is fairly free of wild excess or brain-flaying drama. It is Thou’s most traditionally and accessible metal album so far, with a series of rewarding riffs scattered across the record.
  6. Sep 10, 2018
    78
    What’s transcendent about both the music and the lyrics of Magus is the way it lives in the build-up to a war that is only just beginning.
  7. Aug 31, 2018
    75
    It’s frontman Bryan Funck’s bilious self-reflection that rescues Magus from its occasionally oppressive, repetitive crunch—even if his own introspection, delivered in a swamp-thing rasp, is a little harder to decipher than Cobain’s ever was.

See all 8 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of