Band:	Adamanter
Album:	The Shadow Mirror
Style:	Power metal
Website:	http://www.adamanter.net
Release date:	2003
A review by:	Dream Taster

01. Minstrel Of Pain I, Immemory
02. Minstrel Of Pain II, Killing Ride
03. Minstrel Of Pain III, The Shadow Mirror
04. Minstrel Of Pain IV, Theatre Of Madness
05. Minstrel Of Pain V, Darkness To The End
06. Bloodstorm
07. A Leaf In The Whirl
08. Elisewin
09. Dancing Through The Cloud
10. Father
11. The Dark And The Ocean

Adamanter is an Italian band, formed in 1997, which plays something close to the phrase "melodic-heavy-prog-power metal". But honestly, the production of this album is so awful that it's almost impossible to define the music. I've never heard something that terrible, I think I would have done better in the smallest garage in the world: guitars and keyboards are inaudible, drums sound like half-empty trash cans and, on top of it, the vocals are simply unbearable, the main singer has a cold voice and the background vocals must have been recorded at a karaoke session in a submarine.

So, you've guessed right, The Shadow Mirror is overall a very bad album. However, it features some [few] good points such as a talented guitar player [obvious on the instrumental title track] and some average good moments such as 'Bloodstorm' and 'The Dark And The Ocean'. I mean, the music itself is not that bad, maybe too progressive to be somewhat catchy, but it's just not possible to stand the vocals on top of the lame production. That's why I had to skip some tracks in order to save my ears ['A Leaf In The Whirl', is that supposed to be music? I call it torture...]. We are really miles away from professional productions.

These guys had a nice artwork for the CD and hopes for their first full-length album, unfortunately, too many really bad points turn The Shadow Mirror into something that could give you nightmares. In the overcrowded world of metal music nowadays, Adamanter would have a hard time to survive. Nevertheless, with a good production and more work on the vocals, they could at least become an original band.