SHADRANE

Shadrane is french progressive metal band formed by Vivien Lalu (from Lalu) in mid this decade. With a line up that wll make envious any band or musician, Shadrane manage to gather all the ideas of these musicians in an unique and solid album and give a pleasent surprise in prog metal field. The line up is formed by Vivien Lalu (Lalu, Hubi Meisel) - keys, Joop Wolters ( great and yet very underrated guitarist from prog metal), the fantstic two brothers and very well known in music in general Matt Bissonette on bass and Greg Bissonette on drums, on vocals are Goran Edman ( from Yngwie Malmsteen fame ), Henrik Bath (Darkwater), Marco Sfogli (from James LaBrie solo album), Alex Argento on keys (one of the most promissing keyboard players from today), Martin Le Mar (Tomorrow's Eve, Lalu), Gary Wehrkamp on keys from Shadow Gallery and Virgil Donati on drums, so a line brilliant and 5 star line up on this labum. The album was released in 2008 named Temporal and has some very fine moments for prog metal, that will give to any prog metal listner a pleasent journey.The musicianship is high class, each one has thir own influence on the music and the result is great. The skills and the ideas gives to the Temporal a good liberty of the musicians to express themself without any restrictions, where the rougher moments are melted very well with the more mellow ones. Some spoken words on some pieces gives an enjoyble atmosphere to the pieces. All the tracks stand as good, not a weak moment here, some of them are highly recommended for prog metal listners , like the opening track Temporal, Lanterns Dance, Manzanar and Babies in the Bath, top notch pieces. So, in the end a great album, yet very unnoticed by prog metal listners, they need a wider recognition because is one of the most promissing debut album in prog metal field in last years. 3.5 rounded to 4, a great album to me, that will please the most of the ones who discover this band. Similar with Lalu or Tomorrow's Eve.

Talented debut album by this French band.

Main man Vivien Lulu has gathered himself a high class band for this production, and have added musical guests just as skilled. Great performance by all and sundry, and the mix and production is high quality too.

This mix of prog metal riff patterns and atmospheric, mellow moods is a nice on in general; and the prominent use of the piano is another asset for this production. It's a rather adventurous release in many manners, but with a few serious flaws.

The first and foremost of these is that Lulu tries to cram too many ideas into one song. Too many variations of central themes, too many shorter parts briefly visited and forgotten. Some of the vocals tend to be a bit overly dramatic at times too; although that is more of a minor issue really.

Still, there's lots of talent here as well; and the sheer amount of skill present in this band now should make this an interesting act to keep track of.