Shadow Gallery - Digital Ghosts
InsideOut Music
Progressive Hard Rock / Metal
7 songs (55'31)
Release year: 2009
Shadow Gallery, InsideOut Music
Reviewed by Marty
With the sudden passing of vocalist Mike Baker back in 2008 due to a massive heart attack, most weren't sure what the future held for Shadow Gallery. The band has had an impressive run since the early 90's and is widely regarded as one of the premier prog metal bands in existence. After a brief period of mourning, vocalist Brian Ashland was brought into the band and work continued on the follow-up to 2005's Room V. The result is another near masterpiece of progressive hard rock/metal that holds up well against some of the best albums of their career.

There's a new, heavier edge to Shadow Gallery's sound that is found throughout this album. Lots of "busy" and heavy riffing weave in and out of their song arrangements with less of the more symphonic elements of albums like Carved In Stone. Brian Ashland's voice has an uncanny resemblance to Queensryche's Geoff Tate and on a few occasions is a dead ringer for the Queensryche front man. His voice brings a newfound sense of emotion and passion to the band's overall sound with lots of strong soaring vocals and choruses. The first 2 tracks, With Honour and Venom are examples of the more prominent and heavier guitar riffs. With Honour also has some Genesis-like keyboard based interludes with both tracks featuring great lead guitar work that throws a passing nod to Queen's Brian May and King Crimson's Robert Fripp, both in their harmonized orchestral leanings as well as weird and abstract nuances. The chorus to With Honour has a huge Freedom Call quality as well as similarities to Gamma Ray's The Silence. Pain is one of the tracks where you'd almost swear Geoff Tate was singing it. With a quiet intro, the track gets heavier with a march-like beat and all the passion and emotion that a voice of that style can bring to a song. Gold Dust switches back and forth between speedier chunky-riff driven metal to mid tempo progressive rock with another huge chorus. Primal Fear's Ralf Scheepers lends a hand with the vocals on Strong and the result is a more "cheerful" sounding prog metal track with booming riffs highlighted by a sudden, speedy tempo change. The title track Digital Ghost sees the band charging once again on all cylinders with an up tempo Fates Warning type of track that is exciting to listen to and with lots of layered vocal melodies a la Spock's Beard. More tempo changes and intricate, technical instrumental interludes round out a true album highlight. Haunted finishes the album with a mix of lush and serene prog rock and heavier edged segments with an infusion of high emotion from Brain Ashland's voice.

Like myself, long-time fans of the band are likely to take a while to warm up to the new vocalist. Mike Baker's voice was such a staple of the band's sound. Musically, this album is a logical progression from Room V but Brian Ashland's voice brings a whole new sense of passion, emotion and even a bit of aggression at times to their sound. The song arrangements are as amazing as always with most tracks clocking in at between 8 and 9 minutes. Blending just the right mix of heaviness, technical intricacy, instrumental passages and most importantly, melody, I've always found Shadow Gallery to be more of a "pure" prog metal band over Dream Theater. With more classic prog rock elements, Shadow Gallery doesn't get overly technical and has a strong grasp of melody and overall song writing in general. It seems that Shadow Gallery might have just opened the doors to new ventures as they have announced their very first live show on the Triton Power Cruise coming up in April with Jon Oliva's Pain, Circle II Circle, Crimson Glory and others. Plans are apparently in the works for other live shows and a possible tour. Shadow Gallery has survived tragedy and although the scars of losing Mike Baker may never go away, they seem to have emerged stronger than ever and ready for the future. I'm sure Mike would've wanted it that way.

Killing Songs :
With Honour, Gold Dust, Strong and Digital Ghost
Marty quoted 86 / 100
Goat quoted 84 / 100
Other albums by Shadow Gallery that we have reviewed:
Shadow Gallery - Room V reviewed by Marty and quoted 92 / 100
Shadow Gallery - Legacy reviewed by Sin and quoted 82 / 100
1 readers voted
Average:
 90
You did not vote yet.
Vote now

There are 4 replies to this review. Last one on Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:50 pm
View and Post comments