THE BREATHING SHADOW

Tonally, I had no real expectations except that The Breathing Shadow would have less overt Metal than other projects Swano has been intimately involved (like Edge Of Sanity). The opener, "Nightfall Overture" reveals its more Gothic origins [not as common on the album as Wikipedia would lead you to believe], including the piano-arpeggio section in the middle. Swano is a pretty talented vocalist, but his full baritone isn't really working for me on this'n. It's certainly progressive, broadly, exploring loud-soft dynamic and a few movements. It's just nothing great. The most tasteful moment is around minute 6, but it just felt spoiled by the vocal return. The use of drum machine and keys on "Sleep" is certainly an interesting choice that I don't mind one bit. This song feels very '80s to me. The guitar is the only thing that puts it barely closer to when the album came out. Melodically stronger as well. Proggy, though? Not really. This general tone continues on "The Dreamreader", and honestly the melodies have gotten better and the instrumentation has become a bit more captivating. There's an instrumental section nearing minute 2 that definitely got me more into this one. The track transforms into a brief ballad, before full metallic instrumentation comes forth again. Wikipedia says 'hard rock'; I say Post-Grunge. Still, a pretty good song!

Bright, videogame-OST-type keyboards open up "Higher Than the Sky", a continuation of this unavoidably '80s aesthetic. There's certainly some very good things here. And again, we have even better vocals and vocal melodies from Dan! The arpeggiated keys between verses and some of the other sonic choices reminded me of a much-later '80s devotion: Haken's Affinity (2016). Really enjoying the group vocals in the middle especially, not uncharacteristic of the occasional group style of Opeth, with whom Swano would work as producer. Overall, another Prog-Lite venture. Next is "Recovery Opus", a classically melancholic number by a Swede. Again, this reads to me as Post-Grunge; take that as you will. Thankfully completely unrelated, "The Return to Dreamland" has some instant magic that nothing on the album before even remotely possessed. It's not all back-glancing w*nkery, is it? And then we have "Gypsy Eyes", another track that immediately also feels confident in what it's really here for: my pleasure hahaha. But when the vocals come in, I'm not sure this sentiment persists [It doesn't]... I'm probably going to cleanse by listening to Janet Jackson or something after this. This is just a whole lot of corny, though it could be worse...

"Alone?" No. Never alone. Clean, echoing guitar starts this one off, matched with Dan's softest, lowest register. The first half, nothing happened haha. The second half has more Metal to offer, though frankly this is the most Post-Grunge of them all (since this is before Creed's debut, we can probably point the finger at Staind). Up next, I'm thanking the Lord above for more former-decade pastiches on "A Lesson in Evil". Now, is this immediately great? No. There is a pretty solid, though simple, main riff here. He does another piano thing at the top of the second half and the music changes slightly (for the better, mind you). Glad another is over, though, we finally have "Eye for an Eye". Actually really into some of the things he's doing here. Some slight sonic complexity goes a long way, with some spacy keyboards specifically. Back to strong melody and better-than-decent composition, thank God. The so-called 'spacy keyboards' solo away right about the middle to great effect! I just wish that lasted a bit longer.

Hopefully not a trudge-through, but I'm going to have to decide one way or another to keep Nightingale on The List... Time will tell. As for this debut, I just don't really think it knows what it wants to be. It's a few pegs away from somewhat cohesive.

True Rate: 2.75/5.0

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