With soaring guitars, wonderful drum work and impactful lyrics, Philly’s Stellarscope hits a few high marks with their new album, “Standing In The Shadow Of Your Ghost,†but issues with production hold it back from being as dominant a force as it could be.
As a band, Stellarscope is tight. Bob Forman on drums is a master. From slower beats that set the tone to powerful banging on other tracks, he’s multi-faceted and proficient. Tom Lugo gets it done on bass with supporting tones that complement the drums and guitar almost perfectly at times. Lugo’s guitar work is also great, making the band feel like The Bravery.
The only problem is the overproduced nature of the vocals. Lugo has a capable voice, but the echo on virtually all the tracks makes it a lot less clear than it should. With the drums and guitar and bass working so hard, the vocals almost take a backseat when they need to be in the front seat. As a result, many of the tracks don’t resonate nearly as much as they should, with “Only Strangers Know†being a prime example.
“For You†is easily the best track on the album because it’s the song that combines everything from Forman’s drums and Lugo’s excellent string work together, as well as his voice in as clear and smooth a representation as possible. It tells a wonderful story and one that can make you comfortably numb. It’s the type of track you could see in a horror flick or a drama where someone is sinking away into an abyss. It’s that powerful.
With all of these pieces in place, Stellarscope is a solid producer of tunes and one big song away from being on the radio and a national tour. As of right now, however, they’re still a little rough around the edges in spite of everything they managed to do so right on this album.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
1 Comment
Thank you Patrick Hickey Jr. and Review Fix for the review and the constructive criticism. – Tom Lugo
With soaring guitars, wonderful drum work and impactful lyrics, Philly’s Stellarscope hits a few high marks with their new album, “Standing In The Shadow Of Your Ghost,†but issues with production hold it back from being as dominant a force as it could be.
Thank you Patrick Hickey Jr. and Review Fix for the review and the constructive criticism. – Tom Lugo