Customer Reviews

Carved in Stone

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Put this CD on and get ready for one of the most invigorating musical experiences you have ever had. Shadow Gallery is a progressive rock group featuring an incredible mixture of sonic brilliance, stirring lyrics and wondrous harmonies. If you like the music of prog rock pioneers such as Rush, Genesis and Yes, you will probably love Shadow Gallery.

Carved in Stone is the band's second album. It delivers songs ranging from all out rockers, such as Cliffhanger and Deeper Than Life, to ballads and even an epic song about a Viking crew, Ghostship.

One of this album's unique aspects is the instrumental segues used to transition from one song to another. I particularly enjoy Shadow Gallery's use of the piano throughout their songs. Unlike many other groups in the rock genre, the piano is as important as the guitar and rhythm section in Shadow Gallery's music and this is especially apparent on this CD. Beside the incredible music, the other element that makes this album a masterpiece is the thought-provoking lyrics. Finally, the band has some remarkable harmony and they put it to great use throughout all of their songs.

If you are looking for something fresh, something that breaks out of the mold of tedious popular music, check out this CD. The liner notes on Carved in Stone contain a message from the band and the final line sums up this CD best: "Let those who have ears listen. It's more than just music."

I suppose if you're expecting hard-edge Progressive Metal, this is not for you. The production does lean more toward Progressive than Metal. So Metallica fans should be disappointed, Yes fans should be impressed. I am personally amazed with the creative genius here.

Start with the musically well-crafted "Cliffhanger." Then "Crystalline Dream" turns it up another notch. We get a more mellow message in "Don't Ever Cry, Just Remember." Then "Warcry" holds bold warnings. "Celtic Princes" is a nice piano and guitar piece. "Deeper Than Life" pounds it out hardest of all for 4˝ minutes. "Alaska" is just pleasant. Not a weak entry in the bunch.

Most of the songs to this point are bridged with very nice interludes. Add my appreciation of keyboard rock and we have one of the best-produced albums ever.

And then there's the epic musical journey "Ghost Ship." Start off like a cross between Dream Theater and Meat Loaf. Then bring a Queensr˙che sound. Then the style is Pink Floyd. Abruptly, they bring an Ozzy Osbourne style. And just when you think they're rocking you hard, they break into a full gallop a-la Metallica. Then they find a way to bridge that into a piano solo much like Beethoven. They conclude with a sound very much like Yes. All of it is bridged wonderfully together into an amazing composition.

But wait! There's the postlude (code named TG95.) In my mind, this 'hidden track' sort of ties into "Ghost Ship". So after all that, we get a beautiful Yanni sound for 5 minutes or so.

We have here a must for Progressive Rock fans who want to stretch just a little bit. I'm sure glad I did.

At the age of 16 when i first started listeing metal (Iron Maiden, Manowar, then Blind Guardian and so on) there was this friend of mine (owned about 1000 cds at that time!!!) who had a music show. At some point he first plays a song called "Crystalline Dream" and then "Don't ever Cry Just Remember" by a band called Shadow Gallery. At once they drew my attention and despite the fact that this band is supposed to be progressive, the above songs don't need to be listened to a hundred times to that you can "feel" them.

Next day I get the cd and about ten years after and while Shadow Galler have come up with one more jewell (Tyrrany) and two more good albums (not a match for "C.I.S" and "Tyrrany") I write this review. Keep in mind that this cd had melted in my cd player 10 years before and now at the age of 27 I still listen to it with the same enthousiasm.

The cd is flawlless, there is no mediocre moment in the whole record. There are a lot of keyboards within the whole record which I believe adds the most to the whole album as it gives a warm and lyrical feeling to the songs. There are two ballads (Don't ever Cry, Just Remember and Alaska) while the rest of the songs move mostly in mid tempo and secondly a bit faster (see Dream Theater)

My question is this. All these years I hear that Dream Theater are the best, Dream Theater this, Dream Theater that. Don't get me wrong, I like Dream Theater a lot, have most of their albums and believe that it is a great band. Yet many times I fest a bit "tired" by trying to listen to their albums and fest that they lacked something...

Well what I wanted to hear in progressive metal I found it in Shadow Gallery. It seems to me that this album spoke to my heart and every single melody, every solo and tune that existed made sense. I didn't have to try hard to "understand" the songs or listen to the strange riffs that change all the time and are suposedly sound like progressive metal.

All I had to do is listen to music...So how come after all these years everybody talks about Dream Theater and not Shadow Gallery? I never understood that. Maybe because their last two albums weren't that much.

Moreover, I believe that if you like progressive metal and bands like Dream Theater, Sympony X but with a more "lyrical" and "romantic" touch and less technical riffs you will definitely like "Carved In Stone" and "Tyrrany" (which sounds more mature and evolving".

If you want to listen to something now that a decade later will make you happy and privileged to having listened to this kind of music then get this album. There but a few metal albums from the 650 that I have that stay in my cd player still...!!

-----Lastly I have to mention that this album together with tyrrany have a sence of optimism that overwhellms you when listening to it. It's not a happy kind of feeling like Helloween for example...but its close. Its a feelling that makes you feel whole, complete and gives you great energy for the rest of the day...Well at least this is how i feel-------

Shadow Gallery is a great band. This album proves it. The musicians are top notch, and the music is constantly changing. Cliff Hanger is a cool opener; with some furious guitar work. Crystalline Dream is my favorite track. This album has their best drum work out of any of the three. Kevin Soffera is a very respected drummer, especially in the Jazz community. Alaska is a beautiful song that soothes the soul. The epic, Ghostship, has many layers and moods, making it an enjoyable song. I don't think this album is as good as Tyranny, but it is an essential one to own.

Want progressive rock? here you have it,I like Shadow gallery more than DT or most other bands of the genre,and I'm not the only one. why? just listen to this album and you'll know what I'm talking about. This band is one of the few that has managed to impress me in the last years,vocals are excellent,the sound is unique and the music is brilliant and very atractive,I love this one! the moods in this album change from one point to another making you enjoy it very much,from Cliffhanger's dark feel to crystaline dream's great brightness and Alaska's beautifull poetic words and music. ghostship a very interesting track for those of you who like long,complex compositions,etc. you have just about everything here,I simply think this is a must buy for progressive fans.

Quick and in english! Personally this is the best of the 4 albums, i believe Tyranny is overated, the self titled album is a more interesting album. Buy in order Carved in Stone, Shadow Gallery, Tyranny, Legacy.

This CD is a nice change of pace. Heavy edged riffs fade into beatiful written instrumentals. Two thumbs up for this CD. Definatly a great addition to your collection!!!! Shadow Gallery hit the target. Way to go guys!

Can someone please tell me where I've been for the last 5 years? I can't believe I failed to notice this band for so long. This CD has totally dumbfounded me. It's incredible. Firstly, I don't tend to take too much notice of lyrics. To me the music is the most important thing, just so long as the vocals are well performed and sound good etc. I suppose I'm at odds with a lot of other (Prog?) Rock/Metal fans. Who cares. The music here is great. Good composition and variety, great melodies, monumental, brilliant musicianship,

great production values. On listening, i am reminded of bands like Dream Theater, Stratovarius, Genesis, etc. I love this album.

"Carved in Stone" is the second album by Shadow Gallery. This is typically classified as Progressive Metal, but because of the production, this is better described as guitar-driven prog-rock. The production on the entire album is weak, but the guitars are hurt the most. They lack any sort of edge or bite, similar to the guitars in Metallica's "...And Justice For All." This hurts somewhat the many guitar solos throughout the disc.

"Cliffhanger" starts out similar to Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)." Vocalist Mike Baker proves right away that he has a terrific voice, while the group of guitar solos at the end are fantastic. I believe that three different members have at least one solo, but the solos are all hurt by the poor production. Even so, Cliffhanger is probably Shadow Gallery's best song to date. The rest of the songs before the epic have their moments, but many of them are hurt because of lame lyrics. The song "Ghost Ship" is broken into many different parts, the best sections being "The Gathering the Night Before/Voyage" and "Storm." At the end of "Storm," there is another long spectacular group of solos simlar in length to "Cliffhanger." "Enchantment" is a piano solo that is about as perfect. There are slow parts and fast parts, but altogether this is one of the greatest piano solos that I have heard (tied with "Silhouette" by Opeth).

I think this album could have been one of the greatest that the genre had to offer if only it had had better production and more powerful lyrics. Even so, there are some excellent moments, and I like it how the album is tied together with interludes. For people who wouldn't mind the problems I mentioned earlier, this is a must-have. I still recommend this for fans of prog-rock/metal and melodic metal, but fans of heavy metal should steer clear.

There isn't a lot in Australias 'red centre' for your average music buff unless your into country music. So when I found a street stall in Alice Springs selling hard rock and metal as varied as death metal to Slayer to stuff like Nightwish and Bad Company I was pretty happy.

This is one of the albums I picked up cheap (A$10) and it ain't half bad. To a certain point you can tell what your getting before you even slip it into your stereo. The cover art shows you it's a mid 90's style of Euro tinged metal. The actual results when you push play are all that with a dose of prog thrown in for good measure. Track one (of 20) goes for over eight minutes and the feel of the thing right down to some of the vocal stylings of Mike Baker reminded me of Queensryche except the guitar solos are probably more 'metal' than the 'Ryche boys have bothered with in ages.

The length of some tracks is counterbalanced by the brevity of others such as the second track which is instrumental and clocks in at just 40 seconds. Quite why they've broken the music down like this I'm not sure. Only eight tracks are named, those being numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 13. The rest are anonymous and often in reality contained within the final named track which goes for over 20 minutes. I suppose this breaking up of tunes into smaller chunks does provide some punctuation in the art.

The musicianship is fine and the prog touches enhance rather than detract more often than not and at over 70 minutes the band certainly put in the work. And this is also evident when you read the insert and you do realise what a labour of love this album was and the fact it sounds so clean and crisp is really due to a victory of passion and effort over what must have been a very limited budget.

All up an album with too much ambition for the band to pull off fully but one for the fans of 90's Euro styled product who don't want that high pitched squealing vocal style but who do enjoy some prog influences and high minded conception and deliver. A solid three star album.