Shadow's Mignon - Midnight Sky Masquerade     7/10

By Jacob Brown

Shadow's Mignon is the brainchild of Henning Pauly, who is known for his releases with progressive outfits Frameshift and Chain.  While listening to some classic 80s metal one day, Pauly decided to try and write some music in that style.  Recruiting vocalist Juan Roos to provide the voice to his vision, in addition to keyboardist Stephen Kernbach, Shadow's Mignon is ready to give the world a healthy dose of old-school metal with their debut album, Midnight Sky Masquerade. 

It doesn't take long to realize classic 80s acts like Dio, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Deep Purple, and Judas Priest are the inspiration behind the album.  "A Dragon Will Come" and "A Slave to Metal" start the fist pumping, which gets little reprieve, with the former pounding out true traditional metal while the latter keeps things going with a mid-tempo gallop and group chanted chorus.  Immediately, the terribly cliché-filled song titles should indicate the type of subject matter being covered here, i.e., dragons, warriors, battle gods, demons, elves, etc.  While such subjects should only be considered par for the course, as the 80s were rife with such fodder, vocalist Juan Roos conveys these subjects with enough conviction that no matter how bad it looks on paper it never feels too ridiculous while listening to the album. 

For the most part Henning Pauly walks comfortably in "traditional metal territory", with most riffs fondly bringing to mind the classic metal days of yore, although his progressive side occasionally flashes to the surface during some of the solos.  "All Hail the Warrior" is about as infectious as it gets with its building momentum and "call to arms" chorus.  The keyboards are not used, or at least not as easily heard, on some tracks, though when they make an entrance it is usually a powerful one as that classic synthesizer sound pairs perfectly with the riffing style.  It is moments like that that give this project plenty of promise. 

Not everything works on the album, though.  "Goodbye Boston" and "I Will Never Ever Stop" are both ballads and every time the album reaches one of these tracks there is a disconnect.  Musically, of course there are differences between the ballads and the heavier tracks, i.e., slower tempos, softer arrangements, etc., but those ballads just feel out of place within the context of the album.  It is almost as if these tracks were written by another band.  Other tracks ("Darkness Becomes Light" and "Spirit of the Elves") get redundant, but this is because these tracks, and the album as a whole, are just a little too long.  Trimming some fat off the album would go a long way.

The best "ballad portion" on the album bookends the 10-minute opus "Kingdom of the Battle Gods".  A slow, acoustic section opens with Juan Roos' smooth vocals telling the tale before thunderous drums and panning keyboards give way to a heavier middle portion.  This section contains the best interaction between the synthesizers and guitars as well as some of the heaviest riffs.  Eventually everything comes full circle returning to the initial acoustic section, but this is where Juan Roos really shows off his pipes stretching into his upper register for easily his best and most powerful performance.

Overall, Midnight Sky Masquerade waves the traditional metal flag proudly, and is largely successfully, despite my nitpicking of its missteps.  This is an album worth revisiting for its successes, and there are quite a few, but also one with some failures definitely worth skipping.  For a first effort at writing such material, it should reason that, should Henning Pauly desire to continue under this moniker, and I surely hope he does, the songwriting will only improve.  Fans of classic metal would be served adequately enough to purchase this album, but, at the very least, they should make a note to watch for Shadow's Mignon in the future.

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