DIGITAL GHOSTS

After a three-album streak of absolutely stellar releases ('Tyranny', 'Legacy', and 'Room V'), Shadow Gallery looked to have found their niche and really hit their stride, consistently putting out fantastic albums with their own recognisable sound. Tragically, this came to halt in 2008, with the passing of vocalist Mike Baker.

Losing any band members must be hard, especially once the grieving is done, and it's time to pick up the pieces. Do you start anew? Plod along with previously written material? And is there guilt in getting someone new to record those parts? Barely a year after Baker's passing, Shadow Gallery were back, recruiting a new vocalist and releasing 'Digital Ghosts' upon us all. Sadly, it's quite noticeable that a huge part of the band is missing.

That's not to say this is a bad album, but I've really, really struggled with this one. The musicianship is excellent as always, but there's just a huge absence of something. Call it magic? Heart? Soul? I don't know what it is, but the song-writing just doesn't quite seem as inspired as before. Maybe the band were just going through the motions to finish the album and move on?

With that said, there's still a few tracks worth checking out. Songs like 'Venom', 'Gold Dust' and 'Pain' are all decent enough, and are worthy of the Shadow Gallery name, and there's some good, solid progressive metal on offer here if you can be patient enough, but overall, this is far, far from the best work this band is capable of, and I think I'd much rather just listen to one of their previous albums.