SHADOW GALLERY — Shadow Gallery (review)

SHADOW GALLERY — Shadow Gallery album cover

Album · 1992 · Progressive Metal

3/5 · 2022-08-26
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.