VOICE IN THE LIGHT

Fans of Shadow Gallery have been waiting a long time for a DC Cooper, Gary Werhkamp collaboration. This was essential after the success of SGs, Tyranny which featured DC Cooper as a special guest on the epic, New World Order. Rumblings of a collaboration of immense proportion have been felt for a few years but finally it is here. Amaran's Plight.

Not only do we have DC Cooper and Gary Wehrkamp, but Spock's Beard drummer- Nick D'Virgilio AND Bassist, Kurt Barabas of Under the Sun. Amaran's Plights debut album, Voice in the Light is a conceptual piece which differs from your traditional Dungeons and dragons, Mid-evil warrior or other over used, cliche' themes. Cleverly, Voice in the Light is one mans journey for answers after a Near Death Experience. It's a well thoughout, well crafted concept written by writer, John W. Crawford, who also served as lyricist as well. Cooper, Wehrkamp and Crawford are all lyricists on the piece.

Musically, Voice in the Light hits you square in the face right off the bat and settles down into an emotional roller coaster ride filled with some amazing musical highights. Fact is, the CD doesn't have a bad song on it. There are 3 monster epics on Voice in the Light; Incident at Haldeman Lake- (In three parts), Shattered Dreams and Revelation. Wehrkamp is primary composer on Voice and as always, shines as one of the finest musicians in Prog today. Cooper's vocals are top notch as always and the rhythm section is absolutley pounding. The style is smack dab in between Prog rock and metal with numerous sub-styles entwined within the grooves. Influnces of Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Metallica, Royal Hunt and of course Shadow Gallery are evident. However, Vice in the Light is very original and very well crafted. The mix is courtesy of Rich Mouser, who is always affilated with Nick D and Spocks Beard. The CD is a crystal clear, sonic masterpiece and one of my favs for 2007.

Seldom does a CD come along with the tag "Supergroup" attached that actually lives up to it's name. This band, Amaran's Plight has crafted a superb CD that is a must have. I hope that they will continue the good work and provide us with years of excellent music of this magnitude. I highly recommend this CD to any true Prog fan. Kudos to ProgRock Records for putting this together.