DIGITAL GHOSTS

I still don´t know why Shadow Gallery haven´t reached a broader audience and be as famous and praised as, say, Dream Theatre or Symphoniy X. Those guys have everyhting needed for a band to be huge: terrific musicanship, excellent songwriting team, tasteful arrangements, a great sense of melody and good production. And more than that actually: a personality of their own and a fantastic and very unique vocal harmony style. And still they are not so well known. To top that their vocalist and original member Mike Baker died of a heart attack last year.

So I wasn´t expecting much from this new CD. I thought it might be a transitional album and in some ways it is. But it is also as good as their other excellent latter releases! Their mix of traditional heavy metal riffs, symphonic prog and wonderful melodies is intact. One thing those guys know is to make a record that pleases both the HM fans and the prog ones. It always takes a long time for them to record a new CD, bu boy, do they do it well! They know how to balance the heavy guitars with great melodies, soaring keyboards, unsual vocal harmonies and wonderful solos done by the mastermind Gary Wehrkamp (the guy is simply a genius!).New singer Brian Ashland is very good and versatile too: his voice is very fitting on all the tracks on which he sings, heavy or otherwise (a couple of the new ones were recorded with guests voclaists Ralf Scheepers (Primal Scream) and Clay Barton). But Ashland proves to be the right choice for Shadow Gallery.

Unlike their previous works, Digital Ghosts does not seem to be a concept album after all, although the theme of loss is present on most songs, for obvious reasons. All the tracks are good and varied, as usual. Heavy moments and slower ones, but all very melodic, strong and convincing. This is the kind of band that wastes no single note when they are recording. Everything fits like glove here. But be sure to get the digi pack issue, that includes four extra songs. Two of them are demos from tracks ended up on the final CD in different versions and includerecordings of the late singer Baker. But the real jewel is the song In Your Window, totally sung a capella (only voices, with no instrumental backing). They prove they are more than just excelent instrumentists. Brilliant!

Conclusion: another winner from this fantastic band taht should have more exposure than they are getting. After such a tragic loss, they come back with a very strong CD that shows that the sum of the parts is actually bigger than the individual talents of each member. RAting: something between 4 and 4,5 stars. Highly recommended.