UMUR "Tyranny" is the third full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Shadow Gallery. The album was released through Magna Carta Records in September 1998. It´s the successor to "Carved In Stone" from 1995 and features one lineup change since the precessor as drummer Kevin Soffera has been replaced by Joe Nevolo.

"Tyranny" is a concept album release in two acts, which are subdivided into shorter tracks. Each act features 7 sub tracks. The plot of the concept is a conspiracy story involving a love story and covered up government weapons sales. Several times throughout the album I´m reminded of Queensrÿche´s "Operation: Mindcrime" (May 1988) album. Not only the conspiracy concept story, but many of the musical elements also point towards mid- to late 80s Queensrÿche. Hell...although not completely alike, lead vocalist Mike Baker even has a voice and a singing style which sometimes almost mimick Geoff Tate. Dream Theater is an influence too, but that influence is mostly heard when Shadow Gallery let go and play some technical instrumental parts, which they actually don´t do very often. They predominantly have a more vers/chorus oriented songwriting approach. Savatage is the last influence I´ll mention, and that´s because Shadow Gallery often take their music in a Broadway/theatrial direction, and sometimes "Tyranny" can almost be labelled a rock/metal opera.

With the influences out of the way, which should give you a good idea of what Shadow Gallery sound like on "Tyranny", let´s talk about the quality of the material featured on the fourteen tracks, 73:53 minutes long album. Shadow Gallery may wear their influences on their sleeves, but they are a brilliant band. You´ll hear many high level musical performances on this album. Blistering lead guitar work, the strong and well performed vocals by Baker, a tight playing rhythm section, and keyboards/piano which suit the music. Personally I would have chosen some more tasteful and less plastique sounding keyboards, but that comes down to personal taste.

The songwriting is strong and memorable and if you can look past (or maybe even enjoy) the saccarine ballad "Broken" and the awful honey dripping male/female duo ballad "Spoken Words", "Tyranny" is quite the brilliant release. They´ve taken the great elements of "Carved In Stone" and have built on them, ultimately creating a more complete release. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Carved In Stone" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Shadow Gallery. The album was released through Magna Carta Records in June 1995. It´s the successor to the eponymously titled debut album from 1992. There have been a couple of lineup changes since the debut album as Kevin Soffera (drums) and Gary Wehrkamp (piano, guitar, synthesizer, backing vocals) have been added to the lineup, making Shadow Gallery a sextet on "Carved In Stone".

While the debut album certainly had its fair share of quality moments, intriguing songwriting ideas, and high level musicianship, it was still a bit of a mixed bag in terms of consistent songwriting, and also featured a sound production which left a bit to be desired. In comparison "Carved In Stone" is a much more consistent release, and all the other features have also been given a lift in quality. The sound production is more well sounding and powerful (although still not as polished as the most well produced contemporary releases), the musicianship is on a high level on all posts, and the songwriting slightly harder edged and focused. "Carved In Stone" is generally not a very hard edged progressive metal release though, and there are many parts of the album, which have more in common with progressive rock than heavy metal (the occasional use of flute is one of them).

I hear influences from artists like Queensrÿche (the vocals, the melodies, the atmosphere), Dream Theater (some of the most complex instrumental parts of the album), and Fates Warning (only a few times, but the influence is there), but also artists like Queen and various other 70s progressive rock acts. Savatage and their most Broadway musical styled tracks are also a valid reference, as Shadow Gallery often arrange their songs and vocals in a way that is similar to Broadway musical style arrangements and vocals (listen to the opening of "Don't Ever Cry, Just Remember" for proof of that). Classical music influences are also heard throughout the album (although this is not neo-classical metal in any way or form).

"Carved In Stone" features no less than 20 tracks and a total playing time of 71:03 minutes. Most of the first 12 tracks are constructed with one "regular" track followed by a shorter interlude track, before the 13th 21:56 minutes long epic track "Ghostship" kicks in. "Ghostship" is subdivided into 7 shorter tracks (although they all flow into each other to form the full "Ghostship" track), and "Carved In Stone" closes with the hidden classical influenced track "TG94 (Thanks Giving 1994)". So it can definitely be labelled a mammuth size album. Shadow Gallery produce quality all the way through the playing time of the album though, and even the hidden track is quite the treat (excluding the rather annoying first couple of minutes of silence and knocking sounds).

I wouldn´t call "Carved In Stone" a perfect release by any means and the Broadway musical influences are slightly cheesy in my book, but there´s no denying the high level musicianship and compositional skills involved in the project, and the good features of the album far outweighs the bad. The album features both the most beautiful melodies and the crazy jaw-dropping moments of technical playing that only the greatest progressive metal artists can produce and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "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.

lukretion Crushed between two giants like Tyranny and Room V, Legacy is the oft-overlooked fourth album by US prog metallers Shadow Gallery. It is a shame, because it is a very solid release, containing a couple of killer tracks (“Cliffhanger 2”, “Colors”) and tons of very good progressive rock/metal music.

On Legacy, Shadow Gallery come across as a band in full control of their sound and who, having earned their stripes in the prog metal arena, are willing to stretch towards more audience-friendly and accessible solutions than what one can usually find on a progressive metal album. The six songs of Legacy may therefore not be the most structurally or technically complex prog metal tracks out there, but they should nevertheless be greatly enjoyable for anyone with an interest in progressive rock or metal. A remarkable aspect of the band’s sound is in fact that it sits almost perfectly in the middle between the prog rock of the 1970s and the metal of the 1980s, with strong hints of bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, US prog rockers Kansas, and Queensrÿche. This mixture reminds me of a considerably heavier and, at places, darker a version of another iconic US prog rock/metal band, Spock’s Beard.

Whether you are on the heavier or softer side of prog, you will surely find a lot to like in this album. The playing is simply sublime, but not in a show-offy way, which is probably one of the most remarkable characteristics of the band. Shadow Gallery can play as no other (listen to the astonishing instrumental interlude in the middle of “Cliffhanger 2”, which just leaves me amazed every time I play the album), but they keep their instrumental prowess strictly to the service of the songs – a rare quality in progressive circles. The arrangements are layered and rich, but not overly complex, giving the music a classy, sophisticated feel as in the best prog rock tradition. There is a lot of colour in the music as well, with electric and acoustic guitars, flutes, violins, violas and a great deal of piano and keyboard interjections sprinkled all over the album. Structurally, with the exception of the mammothian “First Light” – a multi-part beast that clocks at 34+ minutes, the songs are not too intricate and are instead tightly focused around catchy, melodic choruses that are perfectly designed to grab the listener’s attention from the very first listen. However, despite the strong focus on melody and accessibility, Legacy can also rock and features some great, powerful riffs that one can easily headbang to (“Cliffhanger 2”, “Legacy”, “First Light”).

The whole album is very pleasant to listen to and never slips into boredom, also thanks to a wise alternation between softer, mellower songs (the ballad “Colors”, the 70s-infused “Society of the Mind”) and more robust and uptempo numbers like “Cliffhanger 2” and “Legacy”. The quality of the tracks is generally high, but “Cliffhanger 2” and “Colors” are perhaps the most inspired episodes of the album, containing respectively some of the best playing and best vocal melodies of the record. On the other hand, the 34-minute long “First Light” is probably the weakest track. This is the obligatory “prog epic”, which any ambitious progressive rock/metal band attempts to write (typically once per album) in their career. However, relative to the best “prog epics” out there, “First Light” lacks flow and consistency. Some parts are great, some are average and some are even mediocre. Most importantly, the various sections do not really work well together and the overall effect is that of a fragmented, slightly unwieldy long track that just does not compare with the quality of the rest of the material on the album. To make things worse, there are several nonsensical minutes of silence and background noise thrown in towards the end of the song before the track picks up again and concludes. It is really difficult to understand how anyone could have thought that splitting the song this way could possibly be a good idea.

Featuring a generally strong production and mix by Neil Kernon, “Legacy” is a very good album by a band that if often overlooked in the progressive metal arena. It may not be Shadow Gallery’s best release, as one gets the sense that the band could do so much more with their technical and arrangement skills (for instance: write a truly memorable prog epic), but it is certainly a very accessible and enjoyable record. This was the first album I ever heard by Shadow Gallery and it really got me excited about this band, so if you are new to Shadow Gallery this may actually be a suitable point of entry.

martindavey87 We all love concept albums, right? If there was one cliché that firmly embodies the essence of progressive music it's concept albums. Records which use narratives to link all the songs together, they often encapsulate the peak of an artist's creativity and on most occasions, the peak of their commercial and critical success. However, if rock operas can be seen as "prog 101", then we all know what to expect somewhere down the line... the sequel!

And that brings us to 'Room V' (that's "Room Five"), Shadow Gallery's sequel to the excellent 'Tyranny' album. I'm not going to deny, the story is a bit challenging to follow, and certainly not something I can summarize in a way that makes sense. It involves government conspiracies, biological weapons, and umm... lots of amazing music!

Anyone familiar with Shadow Gallery will know what to expect from this band, and for those of you who aren't... well, they're a progressive metal band... come on! Full of incredibly mind-blowing musicianship, heartfelt and sincere vocals, and plenty of catchy chorus's that'll have you humming along to every word, there's plenty of twists and turns in the plot that keep the music engaging throughout. There's also an abundance of interludes and rather unnecessary musical passages that make the album feel slightly cluttered at times, and extends the duration to a staggering 75 minutes.

However, the band compensate for the duration of the album with arguably some of their strongest work, with highlights including 'The Archer of Ben Salem', 'Vow', 'The Andromeda Strain', 'Comfort Me' and the title track, 'Room V'. Each one makes all the segues and interludes tolerable.

Proving why Shadow Gallery are one of the most underrated bands the genre has to offer, 'Room V' is an incredible album, and a worthy sequel to 'Tyranny'.