Shadow Gallery - Carved in stone 2LP Vinyl release coming

[Omar]

Magna Carta is doing a CD reissue and an LP release of this classic album. I hope they do "tyranny" next.
Coming December 2. I've only found an Amazon link so far.
https://a.co/d/ja34L9N

[the_visitor]

Long time lurker here who hadn't visited the forum for quite a while, so I just saw this post, and I think it deserves renewed attention . Those first 3 SG albums were the best that 90s progmetal had to offer for me. In fact my journey into the genre started with ayreon's into the electric castle after reading about them in a Dutch magazine in 1998, and it was life changing, in a quite literal sense. The next 4 albums I picked up were images and words, a pleasant shade of Grey, the visitor (not exactly progmetal, but close enough) and Tyranny, and I never looked back.

So to find that the SG albums are re-released (on CD and vinyl) was utterly unexpected, and a very pleasant early Christmas gift to me. So thank you pm rising board, I have discovered so many gems through you over the years .

Tyranny is probably still the dearest to me, since it's the first SG album I ever heard and one of the first progmetal albums as such for me. But I've really come to love the debut, electronic drums and poor production not withstanding. So to see that that one will be released on vinyl next month as well is pretty damn awesome. Belated thanks Omar, I doubt whether I would have figured this out otherwise, and I don't think they'll be printing huge numbers. Ordered all 3 this morning .

Cheers, Roger

Edit:
And in case it wasn't clear from my post: you got your wish Omar: Tyranny is in the bunch . According to Amazon, vinyls of Carved in Stone and Tyranny released on December 16, s/t debut on January 27 2023, but up for pre-order. CD versions might be released earlier I think. The vinyls are obviously pretty expensive (especially including taxes and shipping to the Netherlands), but this might be literally a once in a lifetime opportunity.
I'm not exactly an audiophile and I don't think vinyl sounds particularly better than CD, but I've always loved these covers and can't wait to have them in large format. (Plus vinyl forces me to sit down, listen, not skip any individual track. In other words, dedicate the attention an album deserves. But the whole streaming vs. CD vs. vinyl discussion is a different story altogether of course .

[Sir Exar Kun]

Long time lurker here who hadn't visited the forum for quite a while, so I just saw this post, and I think it deserves renewed attention . Those first 3 SG albums were the best that 90s progmetal had to offer for me. In fact my journey into the genre started with ayreon's into the electric castle after reading about them in a Dutch magazine in 1998, and it was life changing, in a quite literal sense. The next 4 albums I picked up were images and words, a pleasant shade of Grey, the visitor (not exactly progmetal, but close enough) and Tyranny, and I never looked back.

That might be the most perfect set of albums you could just about ask for to be introduced to the genre. What an era that was!

The first two albums are very much underrated gems; I get the complaints about the production and the programmed drums, but the songwriting on those first two albums is nothing short of astounding.

[the_visitor]

That year was ridiculous in hindsight. Apart from the Ayreon, shadow gallery and Arena albums, there was:

- clone by threshold
- one hour by the concrete lake by pain of salvation
- twilight in Olympus by symphony x (I must be a very small minority, but that's still my favorite by the band. Every single song is an absolute classic. One of very few perfect albums track by track )
- Clone by threshold, the perfect appetizer for Hypothetical
- Conflict and dreams by Cairo
- The dark discovery by evergrey, which has a lot in common with the Shadow Gallery debut, in terms of poor production, but stellar songwriting.
- nightfall in middle earth by blind guardian

And my favorite more traditional metal album of all time was 1998 as well. And I would even argue it is more "progressive" than you'd initially think (concept album, longer songs, intelligent lyrics) : the majestic Chemical wedding by Bruce Dickinson.

I think my memory's somewhat skewed to the early stage 90s due to the impact of Images and words on the genre, but the late 90s and early 00s were the real pinnacle.

[Omar]

I've noticed that the first 4 shadow gallery albums are getting a CD reissue and only the first 3 are getting the vinyl treatment so far. I've also found out Cleopatra records is the label behind the releases. Although they claim to have them in stock I'm not sure. I will order thru Amazon instead. Lately I've been getting burned when ordering directly thru the small labels. Defects, out of stock and wrong albums sent. Here is the link from the label if you're interested.

https://cleorecs.com/store/?s=shadow+ga ... pe=product

[robotassassin]

Long-time lurker as well.

First five SG albums. Perfect.

Before Mike's death, always hoped SG would re-record the debut.

[Sir Exar Kun]

That year was ridiculous in hindsight. Apart from the Ayreon, shadow gallery and Arena albums, there was:

- clone by threshold
- one hour by the concrete lake by pain of salvation
- twilight in Olympus by symphony x (I must be a very small minority, but that's still my favorite by the band. Every single song is an absolute classic. One of very few perfect albums track by track )
- Clone by threshold, the perfect appetizer for Hypothetical
- Conflict and dreams by Cairo
- The dark discovery by evergrey, which has a lot in common with the Shadow Gallery debut, in terms of poor production, but stellar songwriting.
- nightfall in middle earth by blind guardian

And my favorite more traditional metal album of all time was 1998 as well. And I would even argue it is more "progressive" than you'd initially think (concept album, longer songs, intelligent lyrics) : the majestic Chemical wedding by Bruce Dickinson.

I think my memory's somewhat skewed to the early stage 90s due to the impact of Images and words on the genre, but the late 90s and early 00s were the real pinnacle.

It was so good a year that you even cloned "Clone" in your list including it twice!

I agree with you on the late 90s/early 00s being the peak..... Once I&W started to incfluence bands / sound in the mid 90s, those bands by the late 90s had really started to perfect their craft. It was a magical time, for sure, all the moreso because at that time you had to WORK to hear a lot of this stuff. Zero chance it was on the radio, internet hadn't really gotten to where you could sample things yet, so you had to go by word of mouth and hunt stuff down.... (Obviously, that's more mid 90s I guess, but still....)

[LarryD]

I've noticed that the first 4 shadow gallery albums are getting a CD reissue and only the first 3 are getting the vinyl treatment so far. I've also found out Cleopatra records is the label behind the releases. Although they claim to have them in stock I'm not sure. I will order thru Amazon instead. Lately I've been getting burned when ordering directly thru the small labels. Defects, out of stock and wrong albums sent. Here is the link from the label if you're interested.

https://cleorecs.com/store/?s=shadow+ga ... pe=product

****I'm sure the vinyl releases won't sound any better than the CDs, but I have to get a "Tyranny" vinyl for nostalgic reasons ....... that disc is not only a desert island disc for me, it has special personal memories as well. $36 is pretty steep for a non-remixed version, but it's Shadow Gallery, what the hell we only go around once ......

I wish more bands would do like PoS did and re-mix / re-issue their discs and give you the vinyl, the cd, the new sound ....... for that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing .......

[gazinwales]

None of those albums need a remix, or remastering they still sound great.
The vinyl is not going to sound any better than the CD, unless it's 'remastered for vinyl', which is highly unlikely.
So I really don't see the point of this release, just a 'cash grab' from the re-issue label.

[LarryD]

None of those albums need a remix, or remastering they still sound great.
The vinyl is not going to sound any better than the CD, unless it's 'remastered for vinyl', which is highly unlikely.
So I really don't see the point of this release, just a 'cash grab' from the re-issue label.

*****I agree with what you are saying - the release is pretty pointless. I'm not sure which albums you are referring to that don't need the re-mix, the SG or the PoS......
That said - I would kill for a re-master of Tyranny .........

[gazinwales]

I was referring to Shadow Gallery, I have zero interest in the other band...
You can 'remaster' Tyranny yourself, all you are doing is passing the stereo mix though an audio program such as Audacity.
How do you think labels like Rock Candy, who don't have access (in most instances) to any kind of masters, use a CD as their source.

Back in the day when I recorded every live show I attended, I mastered the recordings myself using Audacity.

[the_visitor]

It was so good a year that you even cloned "Clone" in your list including it twice!

I agree with you on the late 90s/early 00s being the peak..... Once I&W started to incfluence bands / sound in the mid 90s, those bands by the late 90s had really started to perfect their craft. It was a magical time, for sure, all the moreso because at that time you had to WORK to hear a lot of this stuff. Zero chance it was on the radio, internet hadn't really gotten to where you could sample things yet, so you had to go by word of mouth and hunt stuff down.... (Obviously, that's more mid 90s I guess, but still....)

Ha, I do love that Threshold album, but perhaps not quite enough to deliberately include it twice .

And the WORK was indeed part of the fun. I came into the genre with an alternative rock/metal background, so I knew NONE of the bands. The excitement of bouncing from one album to the next via forum recommendations and internet search is something I never experienced either before that time or since.

- From Shadow Gallery to the wider Magna Carta roster (that green Frog Pest Tree sampler CD did not leave my player for MONTHS! I still prefer the demo version of Ice Age's Join on FPT to the more polished version that appeared on the Great Divide album later)
- From Magna Carta to Leonardo the Absolute Man
- "If you liked that Leonardo album, you should check out Nikolo Kotzev's Nostradamus"
- Wow, who's that brilliant singer on Nostradamus? --> enter Jorn Lande and Beyond Twilight AND Ark (both Devil's Hall of Fame and Burn the Sun released in 2001. So musically different, yet both so brilliant in their own right).
- From Ark and Tore Ostby back to Conception
- From Conception and Roy Khan forward to Kamelot etc.etc.

Every new album leading to another new discovery, "magical" is a very appropriate term indeed.

[the_visitor]

None of those albums need a remix, or remastering they still sound great.
The vinyl is not going to sound any better than the CD, unless it's 'remastered for vinyl', which is highly unlikely.
So I really don't see the point of this release, just a 'cash grab' from the re-issue label.

*****I agree with what you are saying - the release is pretty pointless. I'm not sure which albums you are referring to that don't need the re-mix, the SG or the PoS......
That said - I would kill for a re-master of Tyranny .........

Fully agree, and even without remastering or remixing you could do more to add value. The recent vinyl re-releases of the Savatage back catalogue look stunning, with elaborate liner notes in the form of an LP-sized booklet (although I wouldn't know whether anything was done with the sound on top of packaging). But the SG re-issues seem to be just that: re-issues. The LP gatefolds seem to contain the exact same information as the original CDs, so hardly a labour of love.
But then again, I just paid 160 Euros to have those albums shipped to the Netherlands, so who's the schmuck here

[LarryD]

I was referring to Shadow Gallery, I have zero interest in the other band...
You can 'remaster' Tyranny yourself, all you are doing is passing the stereo mix though an audio program such as Audacity.
How do you think labels like Rock Candy, who don't have access (in most instances) to any kind of masters, use a CD as their source.

Back in the day when I recorded every live show I attended, I mastered the recordings myself using Audacity.

***I'd pay to have them do it rather than me ....... That said, those early SG discs certainly need something to enhance their sound..... I'll take a re-mix of the first two, and a re-master of Tyranny as it sounds decent enough not to have to re-mix it. Re-issues mean nothing to me unless there is a sound enhancement, and like someone said about the Savatage vinyls, there is nothing to be had there except nostalgia. "Streets" needs some serious work on the sound, I wish someone would clean that thing up......

If you are going to re-issue something, take a hint from people like Threshold or Ayreon who actually give you something for the re-issue.