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Pallas - Beat The Drum CD (album) cover

BEAT THE DRUM

Pallas

 

Neo-Prog

3.60 | 179 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

The Pessimist
Prog Reviewer
4 stars 1. Call To Arms (6:29) 2. Beat The Drum (9:18) 3. Hide & Seek * (4:43) 4. Insomniac (7:41) 5. All Or Nothing * (4:53) 6. Spirits (5:41) 7. Man Of Principle * (5:44) 8. Ghosts * (8:16) 9. Blood & Roses (4:52) 10. Wilderness Years (6:02) 11. Fragments Of The Sun (8:01)

This is a great album, and I honestly believe that Pallas are at their artistic pinnacle with this near-master work. Not quite a masterpiece, admittedly for its technical flaws, and being a songwriter myself, these flaws annoy me more than most!

The collection starts off very nicely indeed, with Call To Arms. Every other track following is great and memorable, except for maybe Man Of Principle and Wilderness Years. My personal favourites are All or Nothing for some impeckable playing from the rhythm section, Insomniac for its very professional progression and Ghosts for just being an awesome song, with playing from Niall Matthewson and Ronnie Brown that even leans to virtuosity.

Now for the technical flaws, which you have been dying to hear!

First of all, from Beat The Drum. The chord changes are indeed ripped from numerous classical pieces, and the melody has cliche written all over it. The second longer half of the song however is very well written with some very nice pedalled basslines and vocal melodies. The second flaw is on All or Nothing. This is more of a mixing mistake more than anything, but during the guitar solo at the end the rhythm section drowns it out quite effectively, which can be very annoying if you like a good solo! Third and final recognisable flaw would be the longevity of Fragments of the Sun: it has a severely boring progression, and doesn't seem to go anywhere, which is a shame because the melody and chords are very nice indeed. The dynamics are way off taste though, and it seems like they've taken a 4 minute song and doubled it by repitition.

Anyway, on a possitive note, Pallas's best album. Don't be put off by the bad points, as the good points are definitely worth the buy. I can say I've listened to Ghosts for about 6 years now, and it still hasn't died on me. 4 stars, for catchy melodic hooks and some great musicianship.

The Pessimist | 4/5 |

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