Shadow Circus - "On a Dark and Stormy Night"

[kirksnosehair]

As probably most of you know, I have a studio band called The ANABASIS (link to info in my signature) but I wanted to draw your attention to another band on the 10T Records label, Shadow Circus.   Shadow Circus are the brainchild of two very good friends of mine, John Fontana (guitars, keys) and David Bobick (vocals).  They now have three albums, their debut "Welcome To The Freakroom"  their second album, "Whispers and Screams" and now their most recent release, "On a Dark and Stormy Night."


You can stream the entire album on their website: https://www.shadowcircusmusic.com/


Now, I know what you're thinking.....you're thinking, "did he fire six shots or only five?"


oh, wait, no, wrong script.....where was I? 


Oh, yeah, I know what you're thinking:  Oh, right, this is Barry's friend's band so he's on here pimping their new CD because Barry's cool like that.  Well, yeah, I am cool like that, mostly, but seriously, folks, this disc is absolutely freaking KILLER!!   Easily their best release to date.  That's not to say the other two from them are no good, I am particularly fond of "Whispers and Screams" which has a very cool epic based on Stephen King's epic novel "The Stand"


But back to "On a Dark and Stormy Night"  Shadow Circus have taken Madeleine L'Engle's classic fantasy/science fiction masterpiece, "A Wrinkle in Time" and turned it into an extremely cool concept album.  It's broken up into nine tracks, but it flows like one continuous piece and what a piece it is.  There's something here for everyone.  It's an amalgamation of styles and influences and filled to the brim with Shadow Circus's well-known penchant for cinematic drama.   Now, I'm going to admit something:  I've never read the book that this album is based on, but after having spun this album pretty much non-stop for the last week, I am probably going to go out and get the book!


Do yourself a favor and give this thing a listen.   Progrock fans will find a lot to like here with all kinds of cool elements.   I am extremely impressed with the song craft in particular.  The way John managed to weave this thing together is absolutely brilliant and his guitar playing continues to amaze me.


This one gets my highest recommendation folks.  And that's not because I'm friends with the writer, it's because it's a damn fine slice of epic progressive rock.

[ich bin besser]

The album is in my TOP 3 of 2012. Fantastic stuff. 

[kirksnosehair]

I really need to have John play a couple of guitar solos on the next The ANABASIS album - dude really kills 

[TAC]

Will check out, Kirk.

[Nel]

I have the first two albums by them (hell, Storm Rider came up on shuffle last night), and I never even knew they released a third one until a month or so ago. I'll check it out when I have spare money. Shadow Circus are cheesy in the best possible way.

[kirksnosehair]

^this new album really, really stands pretty high above the other two.  I don't want to slag he other two, because I like them both, but neither of those first two albums is as consistently great from start to finish as "On a Dark and Stormy Night"