PRIME CUTS

It's the first time that I'm going to review a compilation, but I feel I have to give some advice to those who haven't heard anything from Shadow Gallery and who think that this Greatest Hits could be a good alternative and overview of the band's career.

I'm not going to do my usual track-by-track as I'm not reviewing the music itself but the quality of the compilation. So let me just say how well I think each album is represented in PRIME CUTS.

NOTE: I haven't heard this cd. I don't know if the tracks have received special treatment in mixing or production. But I think I'm capable of giving my opinion about the compilation work. If you need details about the SOUND of this recording, check elsewhere. I'm going to speak about the original albums.

Shadow Gallery (debut):

Represented by two tracks ("The Final Hour" and "Say Goodbye To The Morning"). If there was a big problem with Shadow Gallery's first album was the sound, which was nothing short of atrocious, one of the worst-sounding albums ever in the non- underground progressive-metal world. I don't know if these tracks have been remixed, but if they haven't been, you'll notice a big drop in sound quality when you reach tracks 7 and 8. Both are two of the better tracks in the debut, but there are two others who could've been here: "The Dance of Fools" and "The Queen of the City of Ice" (maybe too long for a compilation).

3/5

Carved in Stone:

A much better album than the debut, is represented by two tracks here, "Deeper Than Life" and "Don't Ever Cry, Just Remember". While the two are worthwhile tracks, (specially the second one), I don't see any excuse on excluding the best song in the sophomore record: "Cliffhanger". Also, the excellent "Ghost Ship" and the somewhat-saccharine but full-of-melody "Crystalline Dream", with its infectious chorus, should've been here. The omission of "Cliffhanger", though, is enough to make one consider twice about buying this compilation.

2/5

Tyranny:

Shadow Gallery's masterpiece has a special place in my mind and heart, as my number 5 favorite album ever. That's reason enough for me to pay special attention to how well the peak of SG's career is represented here. In few words: there's NO way to make justice to this album by cutting it in songs; the record is a masterpiece when listened as a complete conceptual work, even though the tracks, all of them, are outstanding prog-metal achievements by themselves. We have 4 tracks out of TYRANNY in PRIME CUTS: the excellent "Mystery" (great selection), the melodic "Hope for Us", the haunting "New World Order" and probably the least memorable track in the conceptual masterpiece, "Ghost of a Chance". I don't know why they included this one. But the biggest crime has been comitted when the best songs have been left aside: where's "Stiletto in The Sand"? Where's the incredible "Roads of Thunder"? But the best song ever by Shadow Gallery is the one we miss the most: "I Believe", with such dynamics, such melody, and probably the best chorus ever in any song. My opinion: weak, bad work at chossing tracks out of TYRANNY.

1/5

Legacy:

A terrific album, a good follow-up to what was impossible to follow-up. There are only 6 tracks in LEGACY, but another felony has been commited here. If "Cliffhanger" was not included, why couldn't they include "Cliffhanger 2" in its entirety? They chose to edit the song and cut it in half, leaving the best part in limbo and giving us only the second part. Awful idea. Also, "Colors" only lasts 7 minutes in the original album, but they chose to edit it? Why? At least "Legacy" was included. The selection wouldn't have been so bad if they had included the first track in all its 13-minute glory. Just for that, I have to say a butcher-like cutting job has taken place.

1/5

Room V:

Well, this album was released by InsideOut records so it was impossible to add any tracks out of it in this Magna Carta compilation. But it has to be said: not having some of the music in the very good last album by Shadow Gallery renderes this compilation almost useless.

0/5 (or maybe n/a?)

There's also a demo out of the CARVED IN STONE era which I haven't heard. But one demo won't make any collection worth your money, if everything else is not what it should be.

If you really have to buy only one album by Shadow Gallery, if your budget only allows you to get one cd, get TYRANNY. Or get ROOM V. Or, at least, LEGACY. They're better than this compilation.

If you can afford more than once cd, there's even less of an excuse to waste your money in this atrociosu collection by one of prog- metal's best bands.

Recommended for: None. I just can't find a reason to recommend this one to anyone, specially considering that TYRANNY will probably cost the same (or less) and it's the masterpiece of the band, better than all of this songs put together.

The music would get a 5 or a 4. But as a compilation, this gets a 1.