Shadow Gallery
Room V

Here... Ugh... Shadow Gallery did it: Ugh... They, let's say, softened up, decided to be more intuitive and graspable, they chose to focus in some way on sonic immediacy, on “communicative simplicity.” Ah... Poor us... they too have succumbed to the rules... Snif Snif... A warm tear rolls down my pale cheek as I listen once again to this... this... MUSICAL MASTERPIECE.

Yes, my dear... Shadow Gallery did it... The big hit... They managed to do what only the (controversial) Dream Theater (please don't start the usual battles D.T. yes D.T. no, better or worse than this or that) with the excellent “Scenes From A Memory Metropolis P.2” only partially achieved. They have indeed succeeded in taking up and concluding a concept started 7 years earlier by constructing a work of incredible emotional intensity, creating both sweet and grandiose atmospheres and sensations at the same time, doing the only thing they could do not to fall into repetition of what they had already (excellently) created or into recycling and self-recycling as many have done. Yes indeed, gentlemen... Because our beloved ones have managed, through an incredible communicativeness (and absolutely not commercialism) and expressive simplicity to give us an album, a music, a work, tremendously exciting, that does what all progressive music should at least attempt to do... And that is TO SPEAK DIRECTLY TO OUR HEART!!

In a sense, it seems that, while in other excellent albums (see “Tyranny”, “Carved in Stone” etc.) their monstrous instrumental technique was aimed at creating in the listener an emotional involvement that was much more than successful, Shadow Gallery with this new “Room V” succeed in offering us a work where the technique is placed in the background because it is "only" a backdrop to achieve the goal our heroes had set for themselves: to give us 75 minutes of wonderful emotions in music.

Not that in this album the technique is lesser than in other works of the group and prog-metal in general, on the contrary, all the members offer an instrumental performance that makes your hands peel from applause, the arrangements are complex and intricate and show how not only is it important to travel at 300 an hour but also to be able to touch your instruments with class and elegance; only when you listen to the album almost you do not notice it (the technique) so taken you are to capture all the sensations that explode from the proposed music... I find this “Room V” the most successful example of technique not as a show and never an end in itself. In one word Magnificent. The production is also very clever and perfectly renders the sound of all the instruments, the magnificent choirs, as usual pompous and characteristic and the beautiful immediate but never trivial melodies. To discuss track by track such a concept I think is impossible and pointless because we are faced with a work that is far from being easily assimilated since, and this is the beauty of it, it has to be listened to more and more times to understand at least in part not its complexity, but its greatness and with every listen something new and engaging will emerge and everyone will create their own interpretation. Incredible.
The contributions are as usual important and perfectly inserted... It’s the case of the “usual” Laura Jaeger who duets intensely with Mike Baker in the sad and sweet “Comfort Me”, James LaBrie co-author of the dreamy “Torn.”

Some accuse Shadow Gallery of repetitiveness and lack of evolution but I think they're wrong because even though with this album they continued the path started with “Stiletto In The Sand” (and it shows) they have continually improved their offering, enriching the arrangements and finding vocal and melodic lines increasingly successful and moving... In short... Enrichment and continuity, not plagiarism or ties too close to the past. Try it to believe it. Enchanting.

This is an album you must have... It will appeal to those who are thrilled by technique, to those seeking something powerful and melodic, to those looking for sweet and dreamy sounds but above all it will please those who love music in one of its best forms. This, gentlemen, is “Room V”, a room where it is difficult to enter but which holds true masterpieces inside.