"Cliffhanger 2" picks up, literally, where the first one left off. On the song from "Carved in Stone," the protagonist was hanging on by three fingers. At the beginning of, "Legacy," he's down to one, before being rescued by a mystery lady. Befitting the precarious position, Mike Baker's vocals are sung in a darker tone than in the previous installment, even as the rest of the band echoes the musical themes from part 1, right down to identical vocal harmonies. The lyrics even end similarly, with the hero in peril, this time facing an avalanche (Cliffhanger 3, anyone?), just before the band pulls out all stops in a wild, enthralling six-minute romp subtitle, "The Crusher." That complex, layered instrumental section shows off what the band is capable of, but perversely, it also points to where this album goes wrong. Unlike Tyranny, which was full of short, to the point songs, "Legacy" has "Shadow Gallery" back to indulging themselves in instrumental excess. While they're good at it, as a band, they're better when packaging their skills in shorter compositions. Case in point, the title track to "Legacy," which manages to pack in the best of what Shadow Gallery has to offer - stirring vocal harmonies, aggressive chords, and thoughtful lyrics - into a tidy 5:04.

The band does less well when trying to write a song for radio airplay. The ballad, "Colors," falls well short of the standard set by the rest of "Legacy." It falls victim to all the criticisms I've ever had of "Shadow Gallery," from cheesy sounding vocal melodies, to mixed message pseudo-inspirational lyrical overkill. It's not as if "Shadow Gallery" can't do ballads. The previous track on "Legacy," entitled "Destination Unknown," is a beautiful, evocative tribute to the unknown and our place in the great scheme of things. Perhaps not coincidentally, "Colors" is the only track on which Carl Cadden-James didn't write the lyrics, or arrange the vocals.

Fortunately, they put "Colors" behind themselves quickly, following it up with the excellent, "Society of the Mind." The lyrics are presented in almost stream-of-consciousness fashion, running through a vast array of the things that are wrong with today's world. It's almost as if there isn't enough time to expound on each problem properly. The vocal arrangements complement the lyrical mindset perfectly, as the harmonies trade off with Mike Baker's leads seamlessly. Musically, this track snarls, angrily taking aim at, "Big Brother," "Ritalin and Prozac," and deceptive virtual realities. At a relatively short 5:23, it echoes the "Tyranny" album, both in song length, and in some of the issues tossed around, and it might just be the best song "Shadow Gallery" has ever made.

And then there's "First Light," which could have challenged for that title, except for a very puzzling ending. The epic has it all, subtlety when called for, and power in spades, great lyrics, a musical few nods to the greats (Pink Floyd and Queen), and vocal arrangements that almost bring a tear to the eye. It takes what I said about "instrumental excess" above, and trashes the notion, making me almost ashamed to have mentioned it in the first place. But then they had to go and ruin it. The 6th track on "Legacy," runs for a total of 34 minutes. All that good stuff I'm talking about occupies the first 22 or 23 minutes. Then comes a few minutes of silence (if you turn it up all the way and stick your ear to the speakers, you can hear noise in the background, which I'm told is the band in the studio), followed by a reprise of the godawful knocking from the "Carved in Stone album. The disc ends with a five-minute, New Age sounding piece which doesn't really fit in with the music of "First Light."

It's the kind of touch that leads one to ask, "Why?" Not in the sense of a fan thinking, "There must be a deeper meaning!", but rather, "Why'd you have to go and screw it up?" In a way, that's my reaction to "Legacy" as a whole, both in terms of the differences from the near masterpiece that was, "Tyranny," and in response to the mess that is "Colors," and the end of the disc. "Shadow Gallery" is capable of delivering a fully realized masterpiece album, but "Legacy" just isn't it.