MAD AS A HATTER

The third and for now the last release of shadowland. Shadowland play neo-progressive rock with some faint hints at prog-metal, highly symphonised, with lots of keyboards, highpitched guitars, solid drumming and a great bass-player. After Ring Of Roses I became sort of a fan, but both "Through The Looking Glass" as this "Mad as a hatter" are a bit disappointing, it misses the depth and agressiveness of the Ring Of Roses album. Still there are some great moments for the dedicated listener.

1. U.S.I (United States of Insanity (9:28) Possible the best song on the album, with great guitarplay and good keyboards, good melodie and a driving bass behind it that propels the music to great heights at moments. very nice song. 2. Mephisto Bridge (6:48) Great keyboards, slow-pace high-pitched guitars. The song has it's moments, but doesn't really get off from the ground. 3. Flatline (5:58) Great song, well structured, with swirling keyboard melodies. really nice. 4. The seventh Year (5:10) Slow starter, but with great keyboard solo's.

5. Father (4:49) accoustic ballad, that can't disguise Clive's limited vocal range, nice vocal melodie though. 6. The Burning (7:10) The most interresting about this song is the background noodling of the keyboards, nice but nothing special. 7. Zuleika (6:25) A soft balad with some nice restrainted rhythms. 8. Mad as a Hatter (11:57) The title track and the most dark track on the album, great heavy drumming, fab. bassplay and great melodies. some of the better solos from both Karl as Clive, with a nice carnival melodie in the middle of the song. 9. Salvation Comes (6:16) Uninspired ending to a reasonable good album.

Overall this is a nice album for the fans of neo-prog music, and Clive Nolan's projects, but there are too few exciting moments to justifie anything above a 3 star rating. Give it a listen if you liked the other Shadowland recordings.