by David White

The follow-up to Shadow Gallery is a progressive rock masterpiece. The biggest change from the debut is band maturity and album production. While Shadow Gallery showed the band's tremendous potential, Carved in Stone finds the band fulfilling that potential. The songwriting, already good, is much better and more consistent. This album is about as well produced as any. "Cliffhanger" opens the album on a medium tempo with a great guitar solo at the end. "Crystalline Dream" and "Don't Ever Cry, Just Remember" follow that up with what can only be described as beautiful progressive rock. The more standard rockers "Warcry" and "Deeper Than Life" follow. "Alaska" is an excellent ballad. The album concludes with the 22-minute "Ghostship," which gives Shadow Gallery a chance to shine as musicians. While there are vocals on this song, there are several guitar and keyboard solos in which each individual member shows his virtuosity. This is a most highly recommended album for rock and, especially, progressive rock fans.