Magna-Fi

Magna-Fi was a rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. It consisted of guitarist and lead vocalist Mike Szuter alongside his brother C.J. Szuter on guitar, bassist Rob Kley, drummer Charlie Smaldino, and, in their later years, guitarist Christian Brady. They are perhaps best known for performing "All Hail Shadow" on the ''Shadow the Hedgehog'' (2005) video game soundtrack, as well as their single "Where Did We Go Wrong", which was used for the '' NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup''.

History

Mike and C.J.'s previous band, The Szuters, had found moderate success touring and releasing albums in Japan. However, their music seldom left the country, and the group essentially split after their third album in early 2000. The Szuter brothers would relocate to Las Vegas the next year, marking the disbandment of The Szuters and the formation of Magna-Fi with new bandmates and a shift in sound and tone. While they would continue to perform as The Szuters for a period of time, the group had decided on their new title by 2002, at Smaldino's suggestion. The four-piece would get signed to Aezra Records, a label distributed by EMI, in 2003. Magna-Fi's debut album on the label, Burn Out The Stars, was produced by Paul Lani (Megadeth, Failure, Mötley Crüe).

In 2004, Magna-Fi appeared on the weekly concert series in Buffalo, New York, on Thursday at the Square along with Fuel and Seven Day Faith. The band at that time, for 2 months, was direct support for Fuel. In the same year, they appeared at the annual festival tour, Ozzfest. Afterwards, the band headlined their tour and became direct support for Sevendust for months after. They also made a return home for veterans show in North Carolina, after a sudden Sevendust cancellation.

At the end of a tour in 2006, they were in talks with Aezra about recording a new album, but these discussions ultimately ended with the quartet and the label parting ways, and the band decided to record their next release on their own. This also marked the exit of C.J. Szuter and the entrance of guitarist and vocalist Chris Brady, another Las Vegas native and long-time friend of the band. The new album, VerseChorusKillMe, was recorded and mixed by the band itself.

In 2010, drummer Charlie Smaldino, having not played with the other members for over a year, experiencing multiple rejections from record labels, and losing interest in the band, decided to hold a final show at Count's Vamp’d in Las Vegas. Following this performance, the group officially disbanded.

In 2020, Mike Szuter revived the "Szuters" moniker for a solo project and released an album titled ''Sugar.''

Band members

Final lineup

*Mike Szuter – guitar, vocals (2001–2010)
*Charlie Smaldino – drums (2001–2010)
*Rob Kley – bass, vocals (2001–2010)
*Chris Brady – guitar, vocals (2006–2010)

Past members

*CJ Szuter – guitar (2001–2005)

Discography

Magna-Fi released two albums, as well as individual tracks for video games.

''Burn Out The Stars''

''post-grunge Burn Out The Stars'' is Magna-Fi's debut album, and the only one featuring guitarist C.J. Szuter.

Track listing

''VerseChorusKillMe''

''VerseChorusKillMe'' is the second and final album by Magna-Fi.

"Who I Am" was originally written and recorded for the ''Shadow the Hedgehog'' (2005) soundtrack, but was replaced with another song, All Hail Shadow. The band later re-recorded and re-used the song, albeit with altered leads due to CJ's departure.

Other songs

Singles

*Where Did We Go Wrong (2002, Gold Circle Records, promo)
*Where Did We Go Wrong (2004, Aezra Records, promo)
*Down In It (2004, Aezra Records, promo)
*This Life (2005-03-07, Aezra Records, promo)

Unreleased songs

Magna-Fi recorded many songs that were never formally released, but have surfaced online in the years following their breakup.

*All The Right Words
*American Airtime
*Burn Out The Stars
*The Curve
*Don't Mean Nothing To Me
*Ecstatic
*Going Out
*Hard To Find
*Hearts And Minds
*Heaven and Flies
*Inside The Silence
*Kick It Out
*Me The Enemy
*Misshapen
*Obvious
*Pay To Play
*P.F.I.
*Saved The Best For Last
*Squint
*Stop Me
*Wayne (The Handgun Song)

In Video Games

*2005: ''All Hail Shadow'' – released on Lost & Found: Shadow the Hedgehog Vocal Trax; pure hero story theme song on ''Shadow the Hedgehog''. Another song titled "Who I Am" was originally recorded for the game when Sonic Composer Jun Senoue contacted Mike Szuter about writing a song for the game. Senoue later said that he wanted to write a song together with Mike, thus resulting in "All Hail Shadow". The song later appeared on the 2007 album '' VerseChorusKillMe'', but had new leads recorded to replace the original because C.J. Szuter left the band and was replaced by Chris Brady.
*2004: '' NASCAR SimRacing'' and '' NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup'' included "Where Did We Go Wrong" as one of the selectable tracks. It is also in the 2005 release of the '' EA Sports NASCAR Racing'' arcade game.
*2006: ''All Hail Shadow'' was covered by Crush 40 for the game ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' (also known as ''Sonic '06'' or ''Sonic 2006'').

References

External links

Official Magna-Fi PageMagna-Fi My Space Profile

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Video game musicians
Sonic the Hedgehog
Rock music groups from Nevada
Musical groups from Las Vegas