NIGHT SHADOW

'Night Shadow' is the debut album by Bulgarian producer, guitarist, guitar teacher, and songwriter's newly formed progressive rock project (2017). The two main objectives before him upon the release of this album were to pay tribute to bands like Yes, Gentle Giant, Rush, Porcupine Tree, among others, while also collecting some of the most gifted and experienced Bulgarian rock musicians, and to dedicate this album to his mother. And he obviously succeeded in doing both pretty well.

Now, this album's qualities are obvious but the more impressive aspect of it all is the fact that Bulgaria is not necessarily known for its output in progressive rock, simply because there is so little of it. Still, bands like FSB and Pantommind get some credit but they are definitely not notable acts in the genre.

On 'Night Shadow' one can appreciate a collection of eight songs, spanning across 44 minutes of runtime. This is undoubtedly a progressive rock album with tints of hard rock, alternative, baroque music, and acoustic music.

Among the highlights of the album for me are the opening track 'Alter Ego', the title track, 'Pandora and Epimetheus', the adorable 'A Song for You', and the bombastic 10-minute closer 'The Journey Along'.

Overall, this is a very melodic rock album, really well polished and well produced, with fantastic guitar playing, making Daniel Eliseev himself the standout musician. The rest of the band do their job not worse. Harmonic vocals, great riffs, and lovely interplay between the keyboards and the guitars, all make this album an excellent addition to Bulgaria's progressive rock vault and a surprisingly good discovery for me!