After Shadow Gallery so tragically lost their iconic lead singer Mike Baker, their future seemed uncertain. But I am happy to report the guys found a more than adequate substitute in the person of Brian Ashland. His voice in some parts resembles that of the former lead vocalist, but in other parts he has a more aggressive tone quality. So in short, the band is back on track and delivered yet another fantastic prog metal album all fans need to hear.
The longer version is that the band sound as good as always, and their trademark vocal layers are still there. As are other typicals as venomous fast guitar solo´s, beautiful instrumental pieces, a lot of time signature changes, big instrumental parts and so on. On this album we also find a lot of famous guests. To do some name dropping: Ralf Scheepers, Vivien Lalu or one Srdjan Brankovic participate.
I actually can´t imagine that anyone into the style is not familiar with the band. But should you be unaware of them and dig high quality progressive metal, you already know what to do. In my humble opinion an essential purchase.
