Shadowlight for Crossover/Neo

Official website: http://www.shadowlight.org.uk
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shadowlight/101240186599103

"James Hodkinson and Mark Wilson met at college in the early 1990's, played together in various live contexts, and numerous side-projects, but finally reunited in 2009 to form Shadowlight. This band finally offers both musicians a chance to work on ambitious, extended songwriting that draws together all their influences: rock and metal, progressive ambitions, classical ochestration, and ambient synthesis. Paul Collins recently joined us as drummer along with Ed Williamson Brown on bass guitar. The line up is now complete.

The product is a collection of unique songs that emotionally engage, but extend beyond generic rock song-writing; they combine driving metal guitar riffs and leads with delicate classical and acoustic instrumentation, peruse wide-ranging rhythmic experiments and boast layered harmony vocals with memorable hooks - all set against otherwordly, evocative atmospheres. A rich mix, showcasing great musicianship, but without wandering into abtsraction."

I was handed a leaflet for these guys at a Riverside gig I went to on Friday, looked for them on ProgArchives, and saw they hadn't been added/suggested yet (though they've already been brought up http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=72931). Not the best thing I ever heard in my life, but pretty good, and definitely prog. I've only listened to the album a few times, but it seems to be growing on me.

I put crossover/neo, but to be honest they could arguably fit into symphonic/heavy without too much difficulty. If you wish to hear for yourself then you can listen to their 2012 album "Twilight Canvas" on soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/shadowlighttheband. They have also had an EP in 2010 ("Winter").

The lineup is currently:
JAMES HODKINSON (lead vocals, guitar)
MARK WILSON (piano, synths, vocals)
ED WILLIAMSON-BROWN (bass guitar, mastering & engineering)
TONY WRIGHT (guitars and vocals)
PAUL COLLINS (drums)

Twilight Canvas - 2012:
1.  Dreaming Awake (5:38)
2.  Beauty Dies (5:37)
3.  Monochrome Dream (6:53)
4.  Winter (7:30)
5.  Different Light (5:37)
6.  Cutting Room (6:38)
7.  Black Swan (6:30)
8.  Reprise (1:55)
9.  3 A.M. Forever (5:43)
10.  Evenfall (4:44)

(I don't have and can't find a track listing for the small Winter EP from 2010, so I'm sorry about that)


I would say they are a melodic prog band that draws from new artists like Porcupine Tree and Riverside, as well as older symphonic bands like Genesis. Moments of delicate ambiance and more complex sections are both present in their sound, along with some heavier outbursts (the leaflet I got claimed them to be a mixture of Genesis and Tool). They describe themselves as "Post-Progressive Rock" , though I have no idea what this is meant to mean.

Thanks for reading, I've tried to do this post like I'm supposed to, please let me know if something is wrong .





Edited by ScorchedFirth - March 17 2013 at 11:58

Ah, well spotted, thank you for filling in my gaps!

Oh Walter, how we miss thee . . . (from the link to the first time that they were recommended)  

I'll evaluate today.

Moved from Neo to Crossover, and an easy 'yes' for me in Crossover: http://progfreak.com/Shadowlight-155900.html?path=pa/recent.  

^ Great review!  Hopefully you will consider adding it to the page that is created on here for the album when the band has been added to the database (as I'm sure it will be!)

added to crossover