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Shadowland - Mad As A Hatter CD (album) cover

MAD AS A HATTER

Shadowland

 

Neo-Prog

3.28 | 56 ratings

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progrules
Prog Reviewer
4 stars This third album by Shadowland is somewhere in the middle - where the quality is concerned - between the first two. I really loved the debut Ring of Roses and rated that around 3,75 and was less impressed with Through the looking glass (3,25). Funny enough this time I was not enthusiastic when I bought this ten years ago. I probably expected too much of it then and with high expectations it usually turns out as a disappointment.

But when I played it recently to listen once again I believe I have been too harsh then because this isn't bad at all. Just like on the first album there's a lot of attention for the great guitarplayer Karl Groom. On the debut he did a great job mainly on the title track but on this album he surpasses himself on The Seventh Year. This track consists of two parts: A curious tale is a vocal part that is not interesting at all in fact but it's the introduction for one of the most thrilling guitar solos I know. We are talking about the second part: Why Kruhulick ? This is a sort of part two as a successor of the debut albumtrack: The Kruhulick Syndrome that was already a great instrumental mainly performed by Karl Groom. But this Why Kruhulick ? is even much much better and will be the reason I am giving this album 4 stars.

But of course one can't do that because of one song only. There are more very nice compositions on this album such as U.S.I., Flatline, The Burning and Zuleika (with african influences as the title suggests). On most of these tracks Groom plays a nice role as well. Funny enough this time the longest track (title track) on this album is not my favourite at all, it's mediocre really.

So this album is slightly less than the debut but is very much ok to me, it's something like 3.6 so 4 stars.

progrules | 4/5 |

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