Artist: Shadowman
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2008
Length: 56.52
Rating: 4.5/5
Shadowman are releasing their third studio album, “Ghost in the Mirror”. The easiest way to sketch this band is like so: take FM’s vocalist and stick him in Heartland. Even though this is a band of two Steves (Overland from FM and Morris from Heartland), the comparison works pretty well.
So we’re talking mature AOR cut from the typical British mold of melodic rock, with a deep feel for sprinkling in the spices of classic rock giants like Uriah Heep, Deep Purple or Rainbow. You can really tell that Morris, the main creator of the Shadowman material on the new album, grew up in an era when the top of the charts was full of songs by those two legendary bands. But that nod is carefully tucked into a typical AOR disguise and only rarely pokes out of the core of the songs, and then mostly marginally, e.g. in the phenomenal No Man’s Land. That feeling is more pronounced thanks to livelier keyboards than on the previous two albums. For that we can thank the band’s new member, keyboardist and third Steve! Steve Millington came to Shadowman from Sad Cafe, Wax and 10cc. The first thing that will hit your ear is the warm hammond sound backing the guitar riffs, plus the occasional juicy back-and-forth with the guitar, none of which eats into the polished compactness and melodic finish, the simple and shamelessly, insidiously catchy AOR face of Shadowman songs, where you’d struggle to pick which one to send off to radio. Songs like Keeper Of My Heart and Here I Am are basically reprises of this (way) new energy thanks to the keyboards, which, through a somewhat prominent, jointly built sonic backdrop of hammond and guitar backing pattern, paint a bluesy feel across both tracks, and it all sounds very retro classic! I’ve Been Wrong Before tackles the bluesy feel most head-on of anything on the album. Shadowman pull it off with flying colors.
The album opener Road to Nowhere veers very obviously, in the chorus, toward the chorus of the opening track Learn to Live Without You from the previous album “Different Angles” (2006), which isn’t the smartest move. Apparently the guys hear that song differently than my humble ears do. That unexpected repetitiveness is also one of the few minuses of the new album. Otherwise, the rest of the album is mostly mid-tempo songs that never sag in quality at any single point. The chorus takes center stage! The graduated build-up of mood in the pre-choruses, with a “crescendo” into the chorus, works effectively the whole way through, of course. The short middle instrumental sections, seasoned with solos, are woven perfectly into the basic shape of the songs. In Fire And Ice they even dip a toe into acoustic territory.
Otherwise, we’re getting the standard you’d expect from the lineup that makes up Shadowman. That means an exceptional knack for highlighting a dramatic, melancholic feel through simple, ultra-melodic chorus hooks, which in Steve Overland’s vocal delivery are once again flawless. By Heartland’s standard, as well as the previous two Shadowman albums, it’s not hard to spot the vivid dressing of Overland’s vocals in collages of warm multi-part vocal harmonies, a bravura integration of the inherited mastery of the greatest practitioners of that craft from the British Isles, like Uriah Heep or Queen.
Overland has that subtle touch that conjures up feelings of sadness and longing, with a hint of pathos underneath. Exactly what belongs in AOR, and more. The whole thing is crowned with an inherited taste for tasteful meandering improvisation, which in Overland’s hands is a trademark that gives the songs their recognizable stamp. I’m basically repeating myself. What’s interesting, though, is that these guys can gather a heap of ideas in a very short time and turn them into songs that are witty, fresh, suitably dynamic, and a great blend of rock energy and the classic hunt for melodic perfection. After all, the fact that they put out fresh albums by Heartland (“Mind Your Head“, 2007), Thunder (“Bang!“, 2008) and Steve Overland’s solo album “Break Away” (2008) are no small energy investments. So there’s nothing more to add except, once again, that these are seasoned old cats who know exactly how to serve up the kind of music they spoil us with, and of course it’s no small thing that they have exceptional musical talent! They also know each other inside out, so the payoff when they hit their targets is that much bigger!
If you’re a fan of classic FM, Heartland and the British take on AOR and melodic rock in general, then “Ghost In The Mirror” is an album you absolutely have to check out. The interesting thing is that it’s not just another confirmation of the exceptional quality Shadowman bring to the scene, but a somewhat different album, because with much better keyboard arrangements, the new Shadowman have, in their cohesion, grown yet another notch.
Lineup
Steve Overland – vocals
Steve Morris – guitar, keyboards
Steve Millington – keyboards
Chris Childs – bass guitar
Harry James – drums
Production
Steve Morris
Track list
1. Road to Nowhere
2. No Man’s Land
3. Bad For You
4. Colour of Your Love
5. Fire and Ice
6. Here I Am Now
7. I’ve been Wrong Before
8. It’s Electric
9. Keeper of My Heart
10. Out Laws
11. Hard Ways
12. Little Miss Midnight
