The Shadow Theory – Behind the Black Veil (2010)

As a prefect example of super-groups that don’t really work, today we have The Shadow Theory and their first full-length release “Behind the Black Veil”. Form by Psychotic Waltz vocalist Devon Graves and featuring Kristoffer Gildenlöw (ex-Pain of Salvation) on bass, Johanne James (Threshold) on drums, The Shadow Theory boosts enough musician fire power to be amazing…well they are half way there.

Starting the album with “I Open Up My Eyes”, you immediately notice a Jethro Tull rip-off flute using mixed in with the vocals, the bass guitar line is particularly great but it can’t save a mediocre song from crashing and burning with very uninspired repetitive sections. Another thing that kills songs is the stupid lyrics of “Ghostride”, in this track just after 2 minutes you will start wondering what the hell you are doing listening to such dumb lyrics.

While the technical abilities of the musicians are undeniable, the whole album fails to deliver in the aspect of catchy and enjoyable music. There are some nice moments in songs like “Ghostride”, “Sleepwalking” (great guitar work!) and “The Black Cradle” (except the damn flutes), but the rest of the tracks are blatant rip-offs of other acts.

“By the Crossroads” is an excellent song but if you are a Jon Oliva fan, you will find certain similarities to his work. In “Selebrate” we get a very pretentious track that just kills the flow of the album entirely and sounds very annoying, especially after “By the Crossroads”. Our ‘favorite’ song has to be the very different and deranged “A Symphony of Shadows”, this track features some Queen-esque vocals mixed in between with some Avant-garde antics that reminded us of Arcturus. A very different track, but somewhat original compared to the other 10 songs.

In general, we have to say that we are pretty disappointed by the lame attempt to overcome musical creativity with a copy-and-paste approach. While the musicianship is outstanding and each instrument shines magically, the album as whole sinks like the Titanic. Be weary of buying this release unless you are ready for a disappointing trip down on memory lane.

Release: November 19th, 2010

Country: USA