Album review: EDEN SHADOW – Melodies For Maladies

White Knight Records [Release date 07.10.16]

Eden Shadow is the brainchild/vehicle for the explosive talents of young Welsh singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Elliot (guitars and keyboards), and fellow band members Alex Broben (bass) and Aled Lloyd (drums).

They’ve already established a repartee with some of the ‘old guard’ with Hawklord Nik Turner making a guest appearance on flute on their debut album Phases (2014), and fellow Welsh progger Rob Reed lending a hand on video and EP releases.

With the ‘usual’ influences from King Crimson and Floyd through to Porcupine Tree, the thing that struck me most about Melodies For Maladies is that it’s prog for a new generation. Yes, there’s all the usual melodic subtlety, but it’s supplemented by angular, staccato, pseudo metal guitar work that leaves little room for ambivalence.

Old hands, who lived through the golden era, are likely to find that testosterone fuelled guitar work a little too abrasive for comfort, but it’s easy to see how for a generation raised on the likes of Dream Theater could succumb to the charms of Eden Shadow.

There’s some wonderful passages of play, and Melodies For Maladies is a hugely ambitious, and at times dense, piece of work which sees everything including jazz passages thrown into the melting pot.

At times, I yearned for more subtlety, and would have liked to see some of the youthful overabundance of ideas expanded and explored in greater depth, but then Melodies For Maladies isn’t aimed at old duffers like me. You will, however, need to have at least a modicum of metal tolerance to get the most out of its varied pleasures. ***1/2

Review by Pete Whalley

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REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

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