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Give Steve Walsh credit for refusing to rest on his laurels. With Shadowman, the vocalist's first album since 2000's haunting and complex Glossolalia, Walsh embraces his inner metal god - Symphony X's virtuoso guitarist Michael Romeo even had a hand in shaping three of Shadowman's most dramatic pieces, for pete's sake - while often ignoring the savvy, accessible rock melodies around which he has built a successful career. At other times, the music here echoes songs from Kansas' Power and In the Spirit of Things era. Very little, however, recalls Glossolalia - a shame, really, because that emotionally draining record somehow felt like a privilege to hear. "Rise" kicks off Shadowman with a plodding aimlessness, leaving listeners wondering if Walsh has finally lost the plot. Devoid of hooks and even a distinct structure, "Rise" also finds Walsh using his voice to experiment with a borderline death-metal delivery technique. The title track then segues to familiar late-Eighties Kansas territory with a solid backbeat, melancholy lyrics, majestic arrangements and a chorus that even manages to evoke Streets, the straightforward rock band Walsh formed after leaving Kansas in the early-Eighties. "Davey and the Stone That Rolled Away" continues that vibe and along with the surprisingly aggressive "Hell Is Full of Heroes" emerges as one of Shadowman's heaviest tracks. "Keep on Knockin'" basks in a classic-rock groove that in a slightly different format wouldn't have sounded out of place on an early Kansas album, while the stark ballad "Pages of Old" features a beautiful acoustic guitar and brooding, personal lyrics. Former Kansas violinist David Ragsdale joins Walsh on "After," an impressive 10-minute epic that places Walsh smack-dab in the middle of Leftoverture. "The River" closes this album, once again leaving the singer in familiar musical territory.Read full review
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