TYRANNY

On the whole, this album is a pretty average progressive metal album. The guitar solos are all really fast, the drums pound away like they're supposed to, a keyboardist lends his Dream Theater-esque noodling to a lot of the instrumental sections, and the bass is pretty hard to find. The only thing that separates a band like Shadow Gallery from one of their peer metal groups is their lead singer, who has a much more timeless (read: less hair metal sort) voice, though his singing does often become reminiscent of Alice Cooper. However, in all, his voice is not as strong as it needs to be to tie together the music on this album. The lyrics deal with, well, tyranny and oppressive government or something. And while the energy levels are high throughout this release, the actual creativity and uniqueness of the band does not really show up very well in Tyranny.

The album opens with a traditional Shadow Gallery instrumental, Stiletto in the Sand. By traditional, I am implying that it's fast-paced, exciting, technically difficult, and mostly aimless. War for Sale is a nice opening song, with a good chorus but a weak instrumental midsection. I Believe has some interesting singing and some cheesy lyrics, with a brief cameo by Dream Theater's James LaBrie for a few lines. Overall, it's one of the stronger tracks on this release. Coming on the tails of that is Roads of Thunder, a sometimes blistering metal piece with some fast guitars and one of their stronger guitar solos. New World Order is a nice and creepy sort of Big Brother tune, with some cool condescension from the oppressive leadership. This segues into Chased, the best instrumental on the album. It is built mostly on the guitar, with a lot of shredding and arpeggios that somehow doesn't sound like Yngwie Malmsteen but like something melodic and high energy. The last two songs wrap up the album, then, in acceptable fashion.

Not a bad release, really, just unremarkable. Fans of melodic progressive metal should enjoy Shadow Gallery, though I'd recommend starting with Room V instead. Fans of lighter stuff might find enjoyable music here, though it is less likely.

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