Damn, this "Room V" is so impressive, really the more I listen to it, the more I like this excellent album. We're lucky this year because if 2004 was the year of Thrash Metal, 2005 is probably the year of Prog Metal. With releases like "The Fullness Of Tim" by Redemption, this "Room V" or the last Beyond Twilight we cannot whine really.
"Room V" is a magisterial album, beautiful and really deep with a lot of enchanting melodies. The good point with this band comes from the fact that even if it is Prog Metal, we cannot find any musical "masturbation." I mean that we're not in front of a demonstration (that's unfortunately the case of a lot of Progressive bands) and at the end it's not so hard to listen to the album, it's not a weakness. Plus evidently our six musicians are really impressive and the excellent voice of Mike Baker (do you remember him on the last Ayreon ?
) gives shivers. The musicians are good and they have produced on this album 14 melancholic songs with a lot of beautiful melodies and riffs. This is not so powerful actually, we're not in front of a Symphony X, but on the other hand Shadow Gallery is unique and really original. Their songs can be sad but they can be catchy too, this is just a pleasure to listen to this album.With a magisterial production, the sound like the artwork are great, this concept album will stay in our memories for a long time, and I really hope that it will help this band to win a bigger audiance and that deserves a lot of respect to be on the top of the list of the best Progressive combo. Let's hope too that we will have the luck to see them live one day too, because for the ones who don't know it Shadow Gallery have never played live (it's probably one of the reason for their lack of recognition?).
Believe me, we're in front of a real masterpiece, one of the best album of the year without any doubt. If you like Prog music or if you still don't know this band, no need to wait anymore minutes, you must find this album somewhere you won't regret it. In the style, "Room V" could become, in my opinion, one of this cult album that we can only find 2 or 3 times by decade. A must, do you hear me? A MUST?