SHADOW CIRCUS
?Whispers & Screams?
(-)

Even though the first record I ever bought was Kiss Dressed To Kill it wasn't until the surfacing of punk in the late 70s that I really got into music. With age I've moved on to a stage where I can enjoy the most basic death metal record as well as the most technically challenging prog metal. But being a child of the 70s I can't help saving a spot in my heart for all and everything that even slightly reminisce of the seventies. Which might be why I took an instant liking to Shadow Circus' Whispers And Screams. There's a seventies feel to the whole album that makes me think of Genesis as well as Kansas. If I didn't now better I'd say that Shadow Circus originates from the Mid West when in fact they hail from New York. There's that feel of open roads, small sleepy farm towns and a longing for something better in the music. At times Whispers And Screams reminds me vocally and musically of Andrew Wood and Mother Love Bone. A band that I fell in love with during the Grunge era and that still lives on in my heart.

-Anders Ekdahl

SHADOW CIRCUS
“Welcome To The Freakroom”
(ProgRock Records)

Mention the term prog rock to a Swede old enough and they’ll conjure up images of clogs, bell bottoms and left-ish communes but that’s just a part of the truth. Musically the movement brought so much good with it. What about bands like Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd or Queen. What would the World be without these additions? I can’t help thinking of Genesis and Queen when I listen to Shadow Circus debut CD “Welcome To The Freakroom”. There is that same dramatic edge to Shadow Circus music that I hear in early Queen and Genesis. It takes some time to get used to it when what you hear on radio today is so formatted but once accustomed to it there’s no way escaping it.

-Anders Ekdahl