SHADOW GALLERY

See my review on Magellan's first as I hate to type twice the same thing and would prefer you to click wear your mouse than me wear out my fingers. Well the new rule (fifty words ) erased my review from your possible vision , so I must find another subterfuge to have it reappear. At least I might send you to the dictionary for subterfuge. Hopefully Max will not erase this review poking a little fun at our beloved system.

Anyway, SG 's album is somewhat similar to Magellan's debut, drawing clearly from a metal sound and influences (I hear Dream Theater hints also) and is a typical product from the early 90's. Just not my cup of tea.

Actually, this was my introduction to Shadow Gallery. I borrowed it from a friend of mine who had this album and listened to it once. I liked it and ordered it together with a few other albums by them a few week later. Since then, this one has been listened to by me several times and I really like it but sadly, like many other releases in the early days of the Magna Carta label (natably Magellan's debut) this album is forgotten and rather unknown to many.

Unlike other progressive metal bands, Shadow Gallery is softer and more emotional. Their debut confirms their further style right away only being less metallic than later releases. This album is not very heavy but still quite hard sometimes, they rather focus on the melody and arrangements instead of focusing on the metal it seems. You can clearly hear that this band is talented when it comes to technical and compisitional skills, though the songs are not as mature as their next album "Carved In Stone", and the musicians isn't as confident here unlike later releases, still some beautiful moments on this one and some good vocals, guitar and keyboard playing through the whole album. One problem is the drum machine (which they named Ben Timely for humoristic reasons obviously) they used here. It's just so boring and adds nothing to the music unfortunately and it sounds very dated as well. The production is poor, it lacks balance and is very muddy throughout. If it had been better, I could boost this one up to 4 stars actually. It definitely should be remastered soon!

Overall, I wouldn't really recommend this one to newbies to this band, even though I started with it. I have to admit that the cool cover was one of the reasons I checked out this one first, but I wasn't really disappointed. It's dark and sometimes mystical and adventurous and have several good moments on it. If you are a fan, check out this one, but newbies enter at own risk.

Rating: 3.5 stars.

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.

The debut by this band wasn't my personal first acquaintance with their music. Actually that was their third, Tyranny. And I think that is a good starting point because if this debut would have been my first it just might be that I wouldn't have gone further in their discography. This one is in my possession for about a decade now and if I have to be honest, it's not one I play very much. I'm playing it just now for the review to see where it all ends up and for the individual songs too of course because to be honest I don't know them all very well, I can just remember that the whole thing isn't too impressive.

First song (Dance of fools) doesn't really give one the idea we're dealing with a progressive metalband really. It's very soft rock what I'm hearing here (2,75*). Next track Darktown is a bit heavier but still not one that makes your boxes explode. One of the most significant features of Shadow Gallery has always been to me the vocal harmonies, the thing that makes them very recognizable. This second song is a lot better than the opening but not really excellent yet (3,5*). Third in line is Mystified a somewhat slower ballad like track sounding very nice but not mindblowing (3,25*). 4th track Questions at Hand is a lot faster and for the first time I'm hearing something that is like real (prog) metal and it's also pretty good compositionwise (3,5*). The final hour is the shortest track of the album and it starts ballad like to end up as a more than average track (3,25*) with some fast instrumental playing of both keys and guitar. Next is Say Goodbye to the Morning, another one with good vocals and fast instrumental playing (3,25*) . Last is The Queen of the city of Ice which is the most often played by me. The epical length always intrigued me but for a song of this length it has always been a slight disappointment for me. I always thought when playing it: when does it really begin when does the mindblowing instrumental passage come up ? But it never does on this one. The apotheosis just isn't anywhere to be found. In the end the song ends as it started, relatively quiet without great swings in mood or temperament. Not bad at all as a composition but far from excellent also (3,25*).

Mathematically it's exactly 3,25* and that is more or less what it always has been in my mind, so 3. A fair album but compared to their successors a minor one. Recommended for the real fans.

"Shadow Gallery" is the eponymously titled debut full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Shadow Gallery. The album was released through Magna Carta Records in April 1992. Shadow Gallery formed in 1985 (originally under the Sorceror monicker), but no officially released demos exist and "Shadow Gallery" is therefore their first release.

The material on the album is late 80s/early 90s progressive metal and it´s artists like Queensrÿche ("Mystified" is for example strongly influenced by Queensrÿche) and Dream Theater which are valid references. The former because of the many strong and memorable vocal melodies and the latter because of the occasional relatively complex instrumental parts. There´s also a neo-classical influence heard on some tracks and some US power metal influences, which remind me a bit of early Symphony X. Shadow Gallery still manage to create a sound of their own though, and the above mentioned influences are just mentioned to give the reader a rough idea of which musical area we´ve entered. While this is a progressive metal album, it´s not in the hard edged end of the spectrum. In fact it often leans more towards progressive rock. The first almost 9 minutes of the 17:11 minutes long closing epic "The Queen Of The City Of Ice" is for example progressive rock through and through (featuring the most gorgeous vocal arrangement you can imagine). Not a sign of metal there until a couple of distorted guitar parts follow, and then the song moves on to a fantasy storytelling part, which has nothing to do with metal either.

Shadow Gallery use drums (which are actually programmed drums), percussion, guitars, bass, flute (only sparsely), keyboards/piano, and vocals in their music. The keyboards/piano are omnipresent and keyboard player Chris Ingles vary his playing style and keyboard sounds throughout the album. The piono is a central part of the band´s sound though. Lead vocalist Mike Baker has a strong voice and a passionate vocal style. He can hit the high notes with ease, but also sings mid-range vocals with conviction. The music also features many choirs, backing- and harmony vocals (both guitarist Brendt Allman and bassist/flutist Carl Cadden-James are credited with performing backing vocals), which greatly enhances the vocal part of the album.

So the songwriting and the performances are of a high quality, which makes it even more unfortunate, that the production values bring the album down. The clean guitar parts are decent enough, but the minute Shadow Gallery put distortion on the guitars and play more heavy metal oriented parts, the whole soundscape collapses and loses power. Whoever created that guitar tone and placed the rhythm guitars as low as they are in the mix deserves a spanking for their amateurish accomplishment. So upon conclusion this is an album featuring high level musical performances and intriging songwriting, but abysmal sound production values and therefore it speaks volumes of the quality of the two former mentioned features that a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is still deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

This debut does not reflect this band true potential, but its a decent album nevertheless and have some pretty awesome songs (and some bad songs that spoil the good ones a bit)

Shadow Gallery is not a conventional band. It is formed by 5 fairly successful musicians / producers in their areas (the band is almost like their hobby, because they all have jobs themselves and team up from time to time to write and record an album) who, with a little help from Magna Carta, released this pretty decent debut. Shadow Gallery's self titled debut is, by no means, a bad album, but it is the most common kind o debut album: it is considerably raw, has an average production and has the lack of balance / constancy that you would expect from a debut (I mean, there are some pretty awesome songs and some really bad ones!).

The band seems to draw influence from the NWOBHM acts from the 70's, like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, with a progressive rock twist of course, what can be seen through the whole (or most) of the album, specially when you consider Mike Baker's vocals and their melodic music.

About the songs, musicianship and other features, there are somethings i would like to state:

In spite of this being the album where the band uses the least amount of instruments, devices or resources (specially concerning musician personnel), the guys from Shadow Gallery still were able to deliver the great instrumental and vocal work that would characterize them later on albums like Tyranny and Room V: all instruments do a great job.

However, besides the good instrumental and vocal work, not all songs that are in this album are good. The band somehow was able to put together, always in pairs, a good and a bad song, being the only exception the song The Queen of the City of Ice, which is good and has no other song to pair with. The opening, the terrific Dance of the Fools, is, soon after followed by the mediocre Darktown. After Darktown, Mystified continues to drop downward the quality of the album for being too long , but it is soon after rescued by the excellent Questions at Hand. The song The Final Hour is fairly good, but some keyboard sounds the band used reminded me of the 8-bit video-games music, what is not exactly a good thing, and is followed by the spoiled Say Goodbye to the Morning (I mean spoiled because the song starts well, but the band screws up the song right after that). The closing track, The Queen of the City of Ice, is, in my opinion, the second best track of the album and finishes the album just as well as it is opened, the song is very good.

The highlights go to The Dance of Fools and The Queen of the City of Ice, respectively the best and the second best songs of the album. The saddest moments are the songs Darktown and Mystified.

Grade and Final Thoughts

A pretty decent debut by the band Shadow Gallery, but definitely not outstanding, and deserves a grade according to that, so 3 stars seems fitting.

A Promising Debut

The self-titled debut from Shadow Gallery is a bit of a mixed bag. Although I find it to be a very enjoyable release, a few problems really diminish most of my experience. It's really a shame that this album has quite a few issues in terms of production and consistency, because there are some really mind-blowing parts on Shadow Gallery.

Shadow Gallery plays a soft progressive metal sound on this album. There is a strong neo-prog influence, especially in the keyboard tones. Power metal is also a big influence on this debut, though you won't hear the heavier side of the genre. Shadow Gallery leans much closer towards progressive rock than progressive metal, despite a few metal riffs here and there. This sounds a bit like When Dream And Day Unite-era Dream Theater, although this album is slightly softer. I personally love their charming neo-prog flavored power metal sound, but I'm sure some people could accuse this album to be a bit cheesy with the vocals and keyboard tones. I enjoy eating cheddar cheese, and in this case I enjoy listening to it as well!

This album consists of 7 songs, which lasts for almost an hour. The songs are on the longer side, ranging from 5 minutes to 17 minutes, with most songs residing around the 7 minute mark. Some of the songs (especially the epic The Queen of the City of Ice) could have been trimmed a little bit since there are some uninteresting parts. There are no throwaways on this album, which is of course a good thing. All of the songs have something great and unique about them. My favorite song is (by far) the opening track The Dance of Fools. That is a 5 star song for sure! Mystified and Say Goodbye to the Morning are the next best songs in my opinion. As mentioned earlier, none of the songs are weak. The Queen of the City of Ice is a bit of disappointment, although it has some worthwhile moments.

Even though I keep giving this album compliments, one key issue makes this album far below its potential. The production is terrible, even for this era. The bass is inaudible, there is far too much treble, the vocals are overproduced, and the drums sound very irritating. It's a shame because the album is really great otherwise.

The musicians are really fun to listen to. Mike Baker's vocals are really fantastic, and it's such a shame that he died in 2008 of a heart attack. He was a very skilled singer. Brendt Allman is a great guitarist, and his melodic playing style fits the music well. He is one of the few people who can deliver an emotional guitar solo, while still showing that you know how to really shred! I can't hear the bass from Carl Cadden-James, so I can't even really comment on him. He plays flute occasionally on this album, which adds some nice variation. The keyboards from Chris Ingles could be criticized for being a bit cheesy, but I personally love his synth tones and melodic playing style. The drums are a bit of a problem. They simply don't do very much, and are far too simple for this type of music.

Conclusion:

Shadow Gallery is a solid and promising debut, despite a few issues. If the production were better, I would give a higher score, but for now this is a 3 star album. If you're into soft and melodic progressive metal, this album is for you. This is an underappreciated gem from the early 90's, and one of the better debut albums in the young progressive metal genre.

3 stars.

This was one of the first bands I stumbled across when I was first delving into the modern progressive rock scene, and this was the first album by Shadow Gallery that I picked up. Since then, I've gotten Tyranny and Digital Ghosts as well, but this one remains my favorite.

This is classified here as progressive metal, but there's quite a bit of symphonic influence here as well. "The Dance of Fools" shows this quite well, with a lot of the instrumentals seeming to my ears at least to channel Kansas. "Darktown," the second longest track on the album, starts off with a fairly standard prog-metal sounding intro which briefly features some very interestin Tull-esque flute work. From there, the track slows down for a vocal section before building back up in intensity again. The track alternates between these themes for the remainder of its duration, culminating in a very satisfying nine minute track. Following that is "Mystified," which, after a brief introductory section, reveals itself to be one of the more commercial sounding tracks lyrically, though, at seven minutes, it's still a very dynamic track. "Questions at Hand" ups the tempo, starting off with a guitar intro very reminiscent of Iron Maiden, and continues much in the same vein to be probably the most straight up metal track. "The Final Hour," is fairly forgettable, in my opinion, with a bit too much shredding, but it was written and composed by clearly talented people and it works where it is in the album. Not anything special but nothing bad either. "Say Goodbye to the Morning" is another one where I can hear shades of Kansas, but some of the keyboards definitely have a Genesis feel to them as well. The chorus is a bit more traditionally prog metal. One of the highlights of the album for sure. Finally, we get to the 17 minute finale, "The Queen of the City of Ice," an excellent closer to the album. This is pretty much a straight symphonic track, there's almost no metal here but that's perfectly fine. Sections are, again, highly reminiscent of Genesis, although in a few parts it also sounds a bit like Dream Theater's epic track "A Change of Seasons," which is interesting since this album was released three years before that DT disk. A fantastic closer which is undiminished by a spoken word section in the middle, something that is usually not a good idea but works here.

I have to mention briefly how highly I regard Mike Baker's vocals, especially on this album. I had initially heard him on Ayreon's "The Human Equation," (actually how I found out about this band) on which he sings in an intentionally grating way, so I was a bit concerned about how he would sound on this album. Needless to say, my fears were unfounded. Sometimes sounding a bit like Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate but also capable of a delicateness Tate could never match, the vocals are stellar here and progressive rock truly lost a great talent when Baker died of a heart attack at 45. Just listen to the beginning of "The Dance of Fools" and you'll understand what I mean.

A really, really, good album from the early 90s and if everything was on par with "The Dance of Fools," "Say Goodbye to the Morning," and "The Queen of the City of Ice," this would be a five star record. Highly reccomended, but falls just short of a masterpiece.

4/5

Mystified

I have now reviewed all of Shadow Gallery's studio albums and for some reason I left this self-titled debut album for last. While there seems to be a consensus on that this album displays a somewhat less mature Shadow Gallery compared to subsequent albums (and I agree with this as well), I must add that this is a very promising debut indeed. On the first few listens it was inevitable to compare this album with the fantastic ones that came after it and as such this debut initially suffers somewhat. However, on further listens this albums holds up extremely well in its own right and constitutes another great album by this wonderful band. Indeed, I enjoy this more than the most recent couple of albums by the band.

Most of the elements that made later albums so great are already here including the influences from classic Symphonic Prog (Kansas comes to mind), Classic Rock (Queen-like harmony vocals) and Neo-Classical Metal (Yngwie Malmsteen), strong vocals (often reminding of Geoff Tate of Queensryche) and instrumental prowess. They would perfect this style on Carved In Stone, but already here it is very successful. If I must complain about something it would be about the quality of the recording which could be better. But the quality of the material and the performance of the band more than makes up for it.

Highly recommended in addition to subsequent albums. A great start for a great band!

First release selftitled from 1992 of already legendary prog metal band Shadow Gallery is a very promising debut in prog metal realm. I really like a lot this one, being very close in consistency of what they will offer later on. Even the sound is not exactly a very solid one, the compositions really smoke from start to finish. Pieces like The dance of fools, Darktown and the lenghty The queen of the city of ice are strong prog metal pieces with nice changes in tempo and some killer keyboards. The keyboards arrangements here are really great, and the vocal parts and guitar aswell. Bombastic symphonic passages are very well melted with prog metal elements all in good measure and with fine musicinship. This is more then ok material, oftently unnoticed in prog metal circles, all the eyes were on Dream Theater second album Images and words back then who re invent the prog metal scene with that album and Shadow Gallery debut released same year were kinda left in the shadow. Definetly one of the best debut albums in prog metal scene for sure. From me easy 4 stars, in same league with their later releases. Carved in stone btw remaining to me at least, their most acomplished work and one of top 5 prog metal albums ever .

Although they merely started out as a cover band called Sorcerer in the 80s covering Yngwie Malmsteen and Rush songs, this Allentown, PA band found a little lovin' for their favorite graphic novel "V For Vendetta" and changed their name to SHADOW GALLERY. While the early days of progressive rock was a European phenomenon, progressive metal was wholeheartedly an American sensation and SHADOW GALLERY was one of the earliest bands to open those doors in the early 90s along with contemporaries like Dream Theater and Symphony X following in the footsteps of the proto-progressive metal bands of the 80s such as Queensryche and Crimson Glory. It didn't take long after writing their own tracks that they would be one of the earliest acts to sign on to the Magna Carta Records which displayed virtuoso and neoclassical oriented metal bands although SHADOW GALLERY never achieved the success that many of their contemporaries would.

At this stage on their eponymous debut SHADOW GALLERY was more of a mix of symphonic progressive rock that happened to include some 80s power metal that sometimes fused together but most often did not. Although the metal would become the dominating force on subsequent albums, on this debut there are large tracts of playing time that sound much more like symphonic prog than metal. In fact the leading track "The Dance Of Fools" sounds more like a neo-prog track that wouldn't sound out of place on an early Arena or IQ album. There also segments of interactive flute action which like Psychotic Waltz of the same era was quite rare in the metal universe. Add to that the often sugary sweet melodic developments and the Queen inspired harmonic singalong vocal style and it's easy to forget that this is indeed a metal band however when the metal aspects are taken off their leashes then there is no mistaken that this indeed is an 80s neoclassicallly inspired speed metal band that has more than mastered all the chops to earn that title. Even within the very first neo-proggy track Brendt Allman stuns us with his lightning blitzkrieg of neoclassical guitar runs as the track fades out.

"Darktown" takes over and introduces the more familiar sound of the majority of the album. That being melodic catchy tunes that alternate between sweet ballad parts then followed by more rarer hard rockin' segments that display quickened keyboard runs, high register vocals and lead guitar workouts. The tracks are also of considerable length where after the verses and choruses play out there are lengthy instrumental wankery sessions that are of the same type of extended play as heard on Dream Theater and Symphony X albums of the same era. The band play together quite well and the trading off of the different ideas flow together very well as the band never once misses a beat in keeping the tracks interesting. While the album is a great mix of prog rock and 80s metal, the true progressive behemoth comes toward the end as "The Queen Of The City Of Ice" starts off with light fluffy guitar arpeggios accompanied by sweet synths and a lulling flute with narrative harmonic vocals telling the tale of a fantasy land that soars on for 17 minutes and 11 seconds. Surprisingly the clean guitar arpeggios and symphonic accoutrements carry on close to the nine minute mark before they erupt into the more energetic side of the track and even thereafter never really erupts into really heavy territory save the guitar shredding under the symphonic scaffolding. There is also a lengthy spoken narration in the middle.

While SHADOW GALLERY certainly had their musician hats on and had more than developed their techniques to stun the listener, at this point there are a few things i find a little unsettling about this debut album. First of all, the opening track "The Dance Of Fools" sounds totally out of sync with the rest of the album. Although it's a decent track, its style makes a very bad first impression and as mentioned already, sounds more like it would be fitting on a neo-prog album with Allman doing a guest shredover. Secondly, "Mystified" sounds too much like "The Mission" on Queensryche's "Operation: Mindcrime." While a decent track it fails to sound original in any way and Mike Baker even sounds like a convincing Geoff Tate clone. The production is also lackluster as Magna Carta was founded by Mike Varney who was notorious on his Shrapnel Records label for hosting some of the best guitarists of the days but equally making them suffer some of the worst production heard in the music industry and SHADOW GALLERY likewise is diminished by the same tinny and muffled dynamics that could have added a lot to the final product. Given all these quirks that this debut dishes out, i'm still quite fond of it although they would improve greatly in every way on their second release "Carved In Stone." With better album arrangement, a nip and tuck in the editing department and a stellar production job, this could have been an outstanding album back in the day but for what it is, i still find the music satisfactory enough to bring me back for repeated listening pleasure.

3.5 rounded down

Magna Carta Madness!

Man, I just love this art cover. Is it Icarus? A young Da Vinci? Anyhoo, it sparked my interest as a teenager and I discovered a band with a lot to offer and even more: it's not a Dream Theater clone! I'm frankly happy to hear something more original than another (*big sigh*) attempt at Iron Maiden.

Yep, that album had that Magna Carta distinct intention of being a new generation, a musical renouveau. Yes, prog-metallic attempts were already on the way (Queensrÿche and Fates Warning were doing it very well) but Shadow Gallery were more on the romantic side, with softer, mellower moments and elaborated vocals. I really dig the keyboard's work with lots of arppe arpeggios! But is it even metal? If so, it's a colorful but toothless form (and maybe an influence to a later Nightwish?). Shadow Gallery had no claws, no fangs (rubber ones maybe) but wore an ox blood velvet cloak with breeches and a tabbard.

Although they had changes in musical style through the years, all in all this first brew is a pleasant one, energetic at times and dre dreamy at another; not too far of a younger version of Arena. Hurray! Huzzah! and such cheers, it's not a Dream Theater or Iron Maiden clone.

I can say I'm pleasantly surprised and yet, it's another winner by the Magna Carta Label.