RING OF ROSES

Ring of Roses is the debut album from neo progressive band Shadowland which features Clive Nolan from Arena as it´s biggest attraction.

The music is very much in the vein of Fish era Marillion and I think especially the guitar sounds very much like some of the things Steve Rothery plays on Misplaced Childhood. The music is generally allright in my book, nothing special but not bad. Some of the tracks stand out from the rest though: Hall Of Mirrors is a 14 minute plus epic with some nice progressive instrumental parts. The Kruhulick Syndrome is a bit different from the rest of the songs too as it is purely instrumental. Both are very nice songs.

The overall level of songwriting and sound quality is high, but there are things that makes this an average neo progressive album in my ears. First of all Clive Nolan´s voice which I find trivial. The melody lines aren´t that memorable either. The originality is also a problem in my opinion. This sounds very much like the thousands of other neo progressive acts out there, nothing really distinguisses this album.

So I´ll have to end my rating at 3 stars. There are many good things on the album, but especially the vocals drag this in the wrong direction. Are there really no other great neo progressive singers but FISH ?