SHADOW GALLERY

At the end of the lyric sheet are the words "Long live Freddie Mercury" who passed away during the recording of this record. There is an eighties Metal feel to this album throughout, which for me isn't such a bad thing, I was just surprised knowing their later stuff doesn't have these references. But this was their first release, and Gary Wehrkamp wasn't on board yet.

The harmonies, keyboards and guitar are the main focus of this album and the opener "The Dance Of Fools" is a good example of these. "Darktown" features some good guitar melodies and flute, but overall seems powerless (the production?). "Mystified" and "Say Goodbye To The Morning" are fairly low keyed tunes. I really liked "Questions At Hand" and "The Final Hour" both dominated with some splendid guitar playing."The Queen Of The City Of Ice" is the epic at over 17 minutes with some great vocals and not so great monologue, this song for me just doesn't really get off the ground.

For fans of the band this will be an interesting listen, but I think there is enough here to keep most Prog-Metal fans interested.