Thanks!
Time to screw some things up then! I can already feel the distaste for the next album, but then again.. I don't really care, for this next one is one of my favourites ever and there's no album in the world I can see sitting at the #2 spot right now.
Let's hear it for:
2. Shadow Gallery – Legacy (2001)
This album goes back to my childhood again. I think I must have been around 12 the first time I casually heard this album from my mother’s stereo system or in her car. Considering the hate Shadow Gallery apparently gets, I must be mad to place an album of theirs so high, shouldn’t I? The correct answer is obviously ‘no’ to anyone who has heard this magnificent piece of music and could appreciate it as much as I did. I could never understand why anybody who likes progressive metal would dismiss Shadow Gallery easily, because to me, they are one of the better progressive metal bands around, hence their ultra-high placement in this top 50. Legacy is their crowning achievement for me, from the awesome beginning of
Cliffhanger 2 to the glorious ending of the epic
First Light. This album, consisting of only 6 songs rocks from front to end. Having seen Shadow Gallery live twice and having talked to the guys made me appreciate the stuff even more. Shadow Gallery is a very good progressive metal band, with a close focus on strong songs and great vocal harmonies. The band is mainly a studio band, as their abstinence from touring has proved. Consisting of a duo of guitarists, a keyboard player, bassist, drummer and singer, the band has a wide array of sounds and shares vocal duties, as is audible in their harmonies. They even have a flute playing in
Destination Unknown, my favourite track off the album, by bassist Carl-Cadden James. The song
Colors is a great ballad and
Society of the Mind is another cool track, but probably the weakest on an album full of strong tracks. The title track
Legacy is the most ‘metal’ it gets on this album, with the heavy down tuned guitar sounds (only to D though, for the musicians) into a very good modern sounding progressive rock song.
First Light is the epic of Shadow Gallery songs, the longest they have done (running at 23 minutes, followed by a couple of minutes of silence, before the return to a finale) and a great closer to a great album. I really can’t put to words why I like this album so much that I put it in the #2 spot on my top favourite albums ever. The only thing I can suggest is you listen to it, see for yourself and appreciate the craft, the musicianship and the overall completeness that is this album. While this isn’t as flashy as some stuff on here, while it isn’t as technically daunting or heavy, to me, this is one of the best albums ever created.
Thank you, Shadow Gallery, for giving me, and us, your awesome music and rest in peace, Mike Baker.
Favourite song: Destination Unknown
Other songs worth checking out: The rest
Topic: Elite's Top 50 Albums v. 'Elitism'; The first arrives. (Read 36879 times)
