SHADOWLANDS

Modern day symphonic prog, a rare sight sadly. Sure, prog isn't dead, on the contrary, but with progressive metal and neo-prog dominating the prog scenes these days, many of us more symphonic orientated proggers get little new stuff to listen to.

So here are some Americans trying to recreate the old 70's symphonic prog style. I'll tell you right away if they succeeded. The answer is yes and no (gotta love this kind of answers right!).

On the one hand, there is a lot of synth use (I've been told it's mostly moog, but I really can't tell myself). The music has actual progression and the atmosphere it creates is vary varying in a good way. There are also some nice vocal harmonies.

What bothers me though is that the instrumental parts are kept at a minimum (at least for prog standards). There is no really cool soloing going on, neither guitar or synth. The lyrics tend to be a bit too poppy sounds ("I'm in love with you" bla bla) which imo doesn't really fit prog.

Still though, I think this is a really enjoyable album. I'ts not really an essential masterpiece or anything, nor is it really complex. It should be somewhere between the 3 and 4 stars, but for the trouble I'll give Glass Hammer 4 stars.

Recommended, but far from essential.