Karl was an intrinsic member playing on all three albums - notes from the Verglas website (a review written in 1999)
1992 Ring Of Roses
Shadowland are: Clive Nolan, who writes all the music and lyrics, sings all the songs and plays all of the keyboards on this album - genius or control freak?!!; the talented Karl Groom who plays some blinding guitar (plus bass pedals); the lovely Ian Salmon (a nicer guy you couldn't hope to meet) plays fretted/fretless bass and acoustic guitar; all of these solidly supported with the drums of Nick Harradence. 'Ring Of Roses' is their debut album which was originally released in 1992.
1994 Mad As A Hatter
Originally released in 1994, 'Through the Looking Glass' is a re-release of Shadowland's second outing on CD. The original artwork has been replaced with a design by Peter Nicholls, although some pictures from the original photo shoot for the CD are retained in the accompanying booklet. This re-release also features an additional bonus track, more of which later! As with Nolan's later release 'Jaberwocky', the title of this work is taken straight from Lewis Caroll.
1996 Through The Looking Glass
Recorded in 1996, 'Mad as a Hatter' is Shadowland's third and latest outing to date. The lineup is basically the same as for the first two albums, but with the addition of Mike Varty (Janison Edge) as a second keyboard player. On previous works all music and lyrics have been credited to Clive Nolan but here we have a departure, although all lyrics are still penned by Clive, some of the music on this work has been penned by other band members:- the track 'United States of Insanity' is a partnership between Nolan and Varty; 'Flatline' by Salmon and Varty and 'The Burning' is written by Varty alone. The overall feel of this work is darker and more sinister than its predecessors. Although the quality of production is superb and the musicianship faultless, this is not as instantly likeable as 'Through the Looking Glass' or 'Ring of Roses', but it certainly does grow with listening.
Sometimes it pays to have nerdy notes!!!
And that is the Threshold Harradence and the Ian Salmon that played some extras on WL
and a second edit - it wasn't the verglas site it was some review page called elrose new horizons. It's amazing what you find when you type karl groom in to google and read the first 300 pages that come up!!!! It was part of a "what bands have past and present Threshold members played with" project that will be unleashed one day!!!
