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Shadow Gallery - Carved In Stone CD (album) cover

CARVED IN STONE

Shadow Gallery

 

Progressive Metal

3.82 | 242 ratings

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Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars This album has set a good example of what prog metal music should sound like. This second album of the band remarks critical milestone for the band career in prog arena. Through this album, the band has set its standard in their music direction where the style and composition are much better than the debut. In terms of music flow, this album has demonstrated its consistency and balance combining those hard driving rhythm tracks and those with ballad-based structure interjected with classical music influence. It combines the high and low points flawlessly throughout the music stream offered in this album. Since this album onwards, this is the band that we should watch closely as their music has improved steadily from time to time. This does not mean to say that this one is less superior than its successor "Tyranny" album. If you enjoy Tyranny, most likely that you will love this album as well. The music of SG is a blend of QUEENSRYCHE, DREAM THEATER, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN and SYMPHONY X.

I have a bit problem with the production side of this album. Sonic quality is excellent. But, when I look at track list, sleeve notes and printed lyrics, I got confused. Track- wise, this album has many "bridges" that contain a sort of connecting or transition piece between tracks. It's okay actually, but there is no description or whatsoever about these bridges. I would suggest that this should have been combined as one track with previous or succeeding track. It's so confusing. Another thing is the hidden track at the end of the album where there is a very loooooong quiet passage until there is a door- knocking sound followed with light music. It's a bit unstructured, I would say. Afterall, the music is excellent and I don't want to use this aspect to penalize the musical review.

Cliffhange (8:41) is a true killer. It starts with an ambient nuance followed with soft touch acoustic guitar fills followed with medium tempo rock music led by guitar solo (played stunningly). The keyboard work provides symphonic nuance of the song. At the end of first lyrical verse the music turns fast with dazzling bass lines, guitar, keyboard and drums work together in relatively complex arrangement with inventive guitar and keyboard sounds. Some keyboard works remind me to Keith Emerson even though in different vein. The guitar solo is stunning - it's a combination of Yngwie Malmsteen and John Petrucci styles. Keyboard provides a background that gives symphonic atmosphere. It's a masterpiece song! At the end of this song there is a short track (0:40) featuring piano that functions as a bridge to the next song.

Crystalline Dream(5:44) flows seamlessly from previous track with guitar fills in very slow tempo followed with hard driving rhythm and fast tempo music. The first part of the song is a straight forward rock music with some guitar riffs and good choruses performed by multi vocal. I really enjoy the choruses. The guitar solo in the middle of the track is stunning with very good and memorable segment demonstrating skillful keyboard work. The bridge part of this song is an exploration of spacey keyboard.

Don't Ever Cry Just Remember (6:29) starts with a combination of piano and keyboard sound at the back, bring the vocal to enter the music.The music flows smoothly with piano as basic rhythm section augmented with electric guitar. The pace of this track is slow/medium tempo with good melody. The bridge at the end of this track is longer than previous track. It features piano as main rhythm.

Warcry (5:59) is a slow track with a basis of piano as main rhythm instrument but it slowly moves into faster tempo with full energy, allowing electric guitar to take guitar solo. This track has a strong nuance of symphonic especially with the keyboard work at the back. Celtic Princess (2:05) is a short instrumental piece explores the use of piano with intense classical touch combined with keyboard work at background resulting a music with good harmony. Those who love classical music will like this song. Deeper Than Life (4:32) is a rocking track with a hard driving rhythm featuring a vocal quality reminiscent of Geoff Tate of Queensryche. It's a nice and energetic rock with a very little prog touch except the interlude in the middle of the track: fast paced with great guitar and keyboard work! Alaska (5:18) is a ballad song with acoustic guitar and piano works to accompany vocals. Ghostship (19:84) is an epic that concludes the album. It contains 7 parts that form the whole epic's structure. Composition-wise, it's an excellent epic with good structure and powerful songwriting. It starts off with an energetic music, medium/fast tempo with multi vocals and combination of speed guitar and keyboard. It moves to different style at second part where the music is influenced by blues filled with stunning and awesome guitar solo. The guitar solo fades out and followed with an ambient nuance enriched with sound effects coming from keyboard sounds. It suits to the title of the part: Dead Calm. Overall, this epic is truly excellent especially with a combination of piano solo influenced by classical music. It's really nice composition.

Overall, it's an excellent addition to any prog collection with a rating of 4¼ out of 5 stars. RECOMMENDED! Keep on proggin' .!!!

Progressively yours,

GW

Gatot | 4/5 |

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