MORAN MAGAL is both an incredibly gifted pianist and a versatile songwriter with a captivating signature voice that's easy to recognize. After releasing three albums as a solo artist, she moved to Berlin from Israel and put together a band under her name. Moran's talent did not go unnoticed in the scene either, which has led to her working with well-known acts such as Warrel Dane (NEVERMORE, ORPHANED, TANZWUT). The album from MORAN MAGAL "Under your Bed" - which was released in August 2019 has received praises from international webzines, bloggers and metal magazines such as Metallian, Rock It!, Orkus, Fireworks Magazine and Metal Temple. Her musical sound presents a unique musical style that combines Dark - Epic Rock, and Folk Metal with some progressive influences. Despite this mixture, the songs are consistently catchy and can easily attract fans of all genres, and not only metal-heads. MORAN MAGAL have finished working on their fifth studio album, "Time Prisoner", released April 2023, which is written, composed and produced by Moran herself and the co-producer and orchestrator Matthias Alexander Preysinger.

Well, this was a most interesting and diverse listen. I knew it wouldn't be a true heavy metal album or even close considering the musical description of the band (Dark - Epic Rock, and Folk Metal) and the fact there are pianos and violins. I wasn't sure if I'd be hearing a combination of EPICA meets NIGHTWISH meets KING DIAMOND. There is definitely a wide variety of sound and mood dimensions, that at times, teased with a more hardened rock sound, but always wound up with a symphonic rock feel. The first two songs "White" and Time Prisoner", were tame and insipid, dominated by orchestral backdrop. "Take Me Down" is more in my wheelhouse, with a meaty, hard guitar solo that comes in near the end to present a dark and engaging tone. "Numbers" and "Mouth of History" present a melodic mix of symphonic,  progressive and even a jazziness playfulness tempo with a more commanding piano and violin exposure.

I went into this review with a little uneasiness because this is typically not my type of genre. The beauty of writing reviews is the diverse and contrary music we are assigned to evaluate and give our opinion on as the final result. I generally hate giving bad reviews on artists that work so hard to perfect their craft, so I will concentrate on all the good of this album. Moran Magal has a wonderful voice and sings with passion and emotion and plays the piano with pure intensity. The songs all have a theatrical feel about them and when they toyed with some heaviness, they had my attention. Call me old school, but I don't need violins in my rock music and I need more heaviness in the vocals. There is a lot to absorb here, maybe too much for me.