Customer Reviews

Digital Ghosts

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love Shadow Gallery and was very saddened by the death of Mike Baker. That is why I was so glad to learn that the band would continue on in the memory of the fallen singer. Of course, my first thought was who can replace Baker? And the answer is no one, but new singer, Brian Ashland, is very good in his own right. To be honest, when I first listened to Digital Ghosts (before I read who the guests were) I thought that Geoff Tate had sang on a few of the songs. Specifically, the songs Pain and Gold Dust. I later found out that Ashland sang these songs. I was very surprised by this, because it really sounds like Geoff Tate...I mean really. So can Ashland hold his own? Most definitely. For the other aspects of the album, this is still Shadow Gallery playing exceptional progressive metal. If you are a fan of their other albums, you will love Digital Ghosts. Even without Baker. The compositions are still complex yet accessible. The instrumentation is still impeccable. The songs are memorable. It is most definitely a Shadow Gallery album, and I couldn't be happier with where they are in the post-Baker era.

Shadow Gallery sure had there hands full when Mike Baker died. I was completely stunned when this occurred; he was one of my top favorite vocalists next to James Labrie, Ray Adler, Geoff Tate, Roy Khan, and Tobias Sammet. But alas, we cannot expect Shadow Gallery, or any amazing band like them, to just sit on their hands and stop playing music. If they did stop, we wouldn't have an amazing album like `Digital Ghosts' to enjoy.

The new singer Brian Ashland sounds like a mixture of Midnight (Crimson Glory), Warrel Dane (Nevermore), Geoff Tate (Queensryche), Mike Baker, and Daniel Gildenlöw (Pain Of Salvation) when singing at a slower tempo. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not. When he sings rough though, he has a very unique voice. Ashland also plays guitar and plays solos on the new album. That's a triple threat guitar we now have for Shadow Gallery. It's certainly awesome to hear and appreciate. Ashland is a jack of all trades and his involvement certainly adds a unique feeling to the band they've never had before. And it's a good thing...

Lyrically this album is about loss. Losing never sounded so good before. Carl Cadden-James lyrics along with the rest of the band make this a truly unique album. Lyrically though, it's very poetic and filled with hope and sometimes despair. It's all up for interpretation.

On the album there are plenty of surprises. You're going to hear a Shadow Gallery album like you've never heard before. Here we go:

With Honor - Wow....what a starting song. For a long while it was my favorite song on the whole album but Haunted soon filled that gap. The song starts off with some haunting keyboards right into a pounding fast Shadow Gallery riff that is reminiscent to Stiletto in the Sand. The singer comes right in totally setting the mood for the entire song. Expect this song to slow up, speed up, and then do a couple laps around your brain at 180 mph. Layer upon layer of music to digest. The super melodic Chorus sticks in your head for days. The sound is huge. The instrumentals sections are strange and fun. One of the best parts is the A cappella midsong. So much fun to sing in your car with others...kind of like Bohemian Rhapsody! It all raps up at around 7:00 with the chorus even bigger than before, it's easy to be swept into the music and want to sing too. The song ends with some beautiful chilling melodies. If you can imagine the words coming to life and telling a story through it's music...that is what the end of the song does. For fans of soothing spacey moody music...you'll love the last 1:30 minutes of end of the song as I did - 10 out of 10 here.

Venom - POW! A fist full of Shadow Gallery is what hit's you in the face here. The very talented singer from Suspyre sings this one along with Carl Cadden-James ( bass player of SG) Probably the heaviest Shadow Gallery song to date. The riffs are crunchy and scary. It's kind of hard not to bang your head to this song. The singing is just awesome! The guitar solos are so fast that it sounds like John Petrucci from the viral Phycho exercises videos on Youtube. 10 out of 10 here.

Pain - A mixed variety song here...hmm...It seems Shadow Gallery is breaking the mold of their last album which was very ballad based and playing heavier. Ashland's voice really sets the mood here. The chorus is extremely melodic and is catchy. The song really reminds me of `Victims' from their Tyranny album. 10 out of 10 here.

Gold Dust - It's easy to see why Shadow Gallery picked this song as their single. It's got everything...instrumentals, great singing, huge choruses, heavy fast guitars, with many twists and turns. I heard they are working on a video for this for Headbangers ball and MTV. Fans who went to the listening party said the video was a lot of fun to watch. I'm pretty excited about this getting on the air. 10 out of 10 here.

Strong - Ralf Sheefers ...what a VOICE. He gets a lot of comparisons to Rob Halford but I don't think that's very fair. This song moves around a lot from mid tempo to fast tempo. The guitar solos are awesome but my personal favorite instrument to listen to on this song is the keyboards. The breakdown instrumental at 3:40 is so cool...reminds me a lot of a mix of Boston's `Smokin' keyboard solos. Some parts of the song kind of have a circus like feel to it and I mean that in a good way...so many cool tricks and interesting sounds thrown at you. 10 out of 10 here.

Digital Ghost - Most mid tempo song on the album. It definitely feels like a cool down song with lots of warm solos and keyboards. Just sit back and let these guys sing soaring melodies in your head while you close your eyes. It's very soothing. They get a bit jazzy here and there too which is a lot of fun. 9.8 out of 10 here.

Haunted - Where to start...I don't really know ha ha. The intro is so unique. Imagine your walking into another dimension through a tunnel. You hear Shadow gallery in the distance...you walk through the dark tunnel until you reach a place filled with gorgeous beautiful music with layers of melodic voices and sounds you'll never forget. The song speeds up around 5:00. It's quite the journey you take in the song if you can imagine. I know my description is a bit strange, but this song feels like your exploring a dream. Put on a set of headsets and take the journey for yourself and see what I'm talking about. 100 out of ten 10

This is not earthly music...this is music of a different dimension. If that's what you want, then you should get this album. This album will take hundreds of listens to decipher it's secrets. If there is one thing Shadow Gallery always does is that hide things in their music to reward the listener who truly loves their music and listens to a lot. I won't spoil anything...hear it for yourself!

Don't be quick to judge the album...as with all prog metal, it takes awhile to get inside but once it does you'll remember just why you are a fan of music like this. This is by far their most accessible album but also a new direction. Has Mike Baker's passing end this band? No way! His spirit is in their music and is giving them something we've never heard before.

Shadow Gallery is one of the finest, most skilled bands I've heard in a while. I mean a while. I listened to all the Prog bands in the 70's, despaired of the falloff of Prog in the 80's and rejoiced about it's resurgance in the 90's. So by now,there seems to be a new and higher level of musicianship in the world. Thankyou! These guys know their instruments, but also know the craft of producing clever and interesting music. I'll admit, I had to listen to "Digital Ghosts" a couple of times to wrap my brain around it. I found myself listening to it more often until I could hear it in my head. Despite the fact that they lost one of their musical brothers, this latest effort will satiate anyone's appitite for a great album. Highly recommended Prog music.

We are blessed to have so many excellent new bands joining the ranks of the Progressive end of Heavy Metal and I have been listening to a lot of newer groups lately. But it is nice to hear some quality old school, no filler Prog Metal from a band that helped rejuvenate this style in the early 90's. Shadow Gallery don't get nearly as much credit as they deserve for being pioneers in the genre and am glad to see this, their latest release is turning some heads.

In case your not familiar with this band they play a very melodic and at times very mellow and extremely atmospheric style of Prog Metal. Their are points where the music speeds up and have some excellent shredding, but for the most part Shadow Gallery is about setting the mood. Though the band as a whole is extremely talented and well mastered with each of their given instruments the band focus' less on extremely flashy musicianship and more so on sweeping arrangements and atmosphere.

Digital Ghosts aims to a slightly darker overtone then the band normally reaches for and they succeed in making possibly one of the most emotional Metal albums of 2009. Whether it be the epic Keyboard solo on the opening track 'With Honor' or the Queen-esque vocals on the title track 'Digital Ghosts' the guys push their skills to the limit. Expect many lengthy Guitar & Keyboard solo's, huge sweeping chorus' and new comer Brian Ashland's superb vocals.

An all around excellent release from a slightly aged band that shows us the classic form of Progressive Metal and Rock with class. Obviously influenced by the mighty Rush, Shadow Gallery is to this date a monster of a band that doesn't sacrifice musicianship and style for popularity. Fans of the Epic, Progressive and Classic end of the Heavy Metal verse should give this a listen, all others I would advise checking out the bands MySpace to get a better feel of this style first.

This Album is a true craft to the artistry of music, it blends all styles into a single focused body of work that shows the true talents of Shadow Gallery.

If you are a fan of Shadow Gallery or prog-metal, you'll probably like this one. Another solid effort by this band, I believe it's even better than their previous album, Room V. Joe Nevolo plays drums on only 2 song and singer Mike Baker passed away before recording any songs (and his voice will trully be missed), but the band now has Brian Ashland who does a more than decent job, plus a few guests to make an interesting album.

I only wish we could see a live version of this band.

this band has always been great and very underrated and this album sums up what shadow gallery are about,the only missing piece is Mike baker but the quest vocalists do a good job,the big harmony backing vocals are still there but never overdone and the music is a pure prog acrobatic workout, get this if you are a fan of Dream Theater,Symphony x or Yes or Queen or SG own style that they've created over the past 5 albumsDigital Ghosts

Finally, after almost 5 years, we have another Shadow Gallery album. The album features a few changes- most notably, the debut of vocalist Brian Ashland, stepping in for the late Mike Baker. Brian does a stellar job, bringing his own voice to Shadow Gallery without compromising the music.
The album leads off with a tribute to American soliders in "With Honor". Other high points include "Pain" "Digital Ghost"- a tribute to Mike Baker, and "Haunted". The band this time really stretched their compositions, with the shortest songs clocking in at 6:22. The songs are chock full of what most of their fans have come to love about Shadow Gallery's music- complex instrumental arrangements, coupled with varied tempo changes and complex, soaring vocal arrangements. In particular, "Haunted", "With Honor" and "Digital Ghost" stand out in terms of the vocal arrangements. Two songs, "Venom" and "Strong" feature guest vocalists- with Clay Barton fetaured on "Venom"- a grinding, powerful piece, and Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear, Gamma Ray) doing the honors on "Strong".
This is one of the best albums I've heard in a long lone time. Well worth the investment, and worthy of inclusion in any music lovers collection.

The very first note of this album will capture you completely & won't let go--from the lofty harmonies through the driving beats & furious guitar solos to the exquisite finish, "Digital Ghosts, the new album from Shadow Gallery, is a revelation.

This is my first Shadow Gallery album & I'm hooked. I've been looking forward to this album ever since I first picked up on the buzz on Twitter (follow Shadow Gallery @shadowgallerymu) & decided I needed to find out what all the chatter was about. So being the curious girl I am I fired up my Google & off I went. Long story short I hit up their website & read some of the background etc. (ok I read the whole site) and I went to Youtube & searched out anything they had.

"Digital Ghosts" is nothing short of perfection. The vocals are rich & layered with harmony throughout. Brian Ashland's voice lends itself effortlessly to the soaring heights of the music. He's an excellent choice to provide the lead vocals going forward. The music is everything you'd expect from these guys. There's not one false moment throughout the entire album. Not only have Gary Werhkamp, Carl Cadden-James, Brendt Allman & Brian Ashland lived up to the expectations & hype; they have surpassed it. These guys have taken progressive/symphonic rock/metal & flown to the stratosphere.

As a new listener my mind was blown...and I wanted more & more. For anybody who has never heard them before I ask you to take the time to listen & revel in the music. There is so much packed into this little disc you will be discovering new moments & subtle nuance with every trip through the music. Each song is a testament to the true genius of these guys--a showcase for their mighty talents and yet you are never left with a sense that any of them are "showing off". The lyrics are powerful & stirring. Although the overall tone of the album is somewhat dark & deals with "loss" as a general theme it is also a steadfast statement for moving forward in the face of loss. I defy you to listen, truly listen & not walk away feeling stronger & better for it. The music & lyrics combine to form a sublime experience that will live inside listeners long after they turn the CD off. In the words of Shadow Gallery it is indeed filled with "enduring anthems crossing time & crossing minds".

R.I.P. Mike baker.
This is another stellar effort from Shadow Gallery. Beautiful and powerful with soaring harmony's and great performances all around.
This is one of the great bands of the last fifteen years or so and I am so glad that they are continuing forward and still recording great music.