THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Shadowland continue their exploration of dark neo-progressive rock, dark melodious sympho, with swirling keyboards, good guitars and a perfect rhytm section. uptempo multi- layered melodic songs, with shifting time-signatures, mood swings and great musical storietelling. great, but not comparable to their previous Ring Of Roses album.

1. A Matter Of Perspective (2:16) Relaxed opener, with accoustic guitar, nice. 2. The Hunger (6:27) Very melodic track, with athmospheric keyboards, becoming more powerfull every second, great musicianship and well sung. 3. Dreams Of The Ferryman (8:44) Deep basslines and strong drumming provides a nice backbone for an energetic melodic song, with some good guitarplay and nice singing.

4. Half Moon Street (7:17) Again a bit dark atmospheric, great textures, with good guitar and bass. 5. When The World Turns To White (9:05) Beginning slow, gaining amplitude halfway, but it's not their best song, nice keyboards though. 6. The Waking Hour (7:49) A nice song, but like the previous song it sounds a bit flat compared to their normally highly melodic sound.

7. Through The Looking Glass (11:19) very good keyboards, melodies swirling about, The Alice in Wonderland storie set to music. nice. 8. Mindgames (7:21) A Pink Floyd like choir, strong rhythmic melodie. nice. 9. So The Music Stops (4:29) A piano based song, great playing from Clive Nolan, awsome melodielines playing through each other, really great.

This is an OK album from Shadowland, but it can't compete with their debut album, very nice moments, and the musicians are good enough, but the contribution from Karl Groom is far less than I expected and hoped for. Three stars, with a recomendation for Ian Salmon who again shows he is a very good bass-player.

Nice for the fans of Clive Nolan's music, but try Ring Of Roses first.