Shadow Gallery - Carved in Stone (1995)^{Release ID: 5030}

This is the point where Shadow Gallery decided to be REALLY ambitious.  Taking a dramatic turn from their previos sound, they experiment with new textures here, risking alienating fans of the first.  At first I found myself pretty annoyed with finding the various track listings on RYM and YouTube make it difficult to find the right playlist.  Apparently there seem to be major changes between releases, so I just went with the one involving the hidden segues. 

Right from the start, Cliffhanger fixes the major production problem of the debut, making it more appropriate for tamed metal studio production instead of glittery symphonic prog rock production.  Cliffhanger also bore a new, slower and darker persona.  There's more focus on synths and organs as well as textures.  Whether this was simply a temporary direction on an album with more of the enjoyable symphonics of the previous album or the staple for the rest of the album I didn't know, but I was gonna finish it anyway.  I quite liked the new direction and I was both happy and disappointed that Crystalline Dream carried the sound over due to pros and cons.  The textures become a vital role in the development of the entire side B, which is all one big epic divided into several parts.  The various influences of the album do a bang-up job bringing you into a weird proggy solar system with its own fanciful presence.

Ironically, I really wished there was more strength in the percussions.  The album definitely needs more beat in terms of strength and metallic behavior.  Sometimes this album will drag on and forget to be a metal album.  This is only one example of how the album largely sacrifices the symphonic sound for dramatic epica.  At least these vibes are tamed and never reach melodrama, but I wish it would feel more like a metal album.  Even when guitars go deep it steers to close to ballad territory too consistently to give a metalhead what he needs.  If people are gonna complain about a metal tag for Deep Purple's Child in Time, then I'm gonna complain about a metal tag for Warcry.  It's neo-prog with a little metal in it.

As a prog rock album, this one succeeds hard.  We have a great balance between slow atmospheres and heavy organ symphonics due to the inclusion of ballads.  Although I wish Shadow gallery continued the sound of their first album, I won't deny that I consider the various genres the band implemented to all be well-delivered.  Nicely epic and consistent, this is a step forward for Shadow Gallery.

'Carved in Stone' is Shadow Gallery's second album, in which the performances as a whole seem a lot tighter and polished, but the quality of the compositions don't quite surpass that of their debut. However, fans will instantly notice the improvement in production, which sounds a lot richer and "cleaner", giving the music the punch it needs, and which would go on to become the bands somewhat "signature" sound.

However, despite the improvements in production, the album is still fairly average at best. While it may contain one of Shadow Gallery's best songs ('Crystalline Dreams' is just so damn catchy!), the rest of the music can seem fairly lackluster at times. The biggest letdown has to be 'Ghost Ship', which, similar to the group's debut, is the "epic" of the album (clocking in at a total of just over 20 minutes). Broken into seven smaller parts, most of the highlights last no longer than a minute or two before going into the next section, making the whole piece feel mostly disjointed.

As for the other tracks, we have 'Cliffhanger', 'Don't Ever Cry, Just Remember', 'Warcry' and the previously mentioned 'Crystalline Dream', as well as a couple of highlights from the 'Ghost Ship' piece. These are all good songs that definitely make this album worth getting, but honestly, most of them just pale in comparison to some of the bands later material.

As per usual with Shadow Gallery, the musicianship is spectacular and Mike Baker's vocals are truly a thing of beauty. Overall though, it's just a "good" album. Nothing to write home about, but a worthy addition to the collection if it can purchased cheap enough.