THE CROSS & THE CRUCIBLE

It seems that Pallas doesn't want to inundate the market with their studio releases. This is their fourth original album in seventeen years. This one came three years after their reunion Beat The Drum.

What annoys me during this album, is that several parts of songs are quite useless. Take the opening number for instance: it holds a fine and bombastic little portion which is ruined by ambient and almost inaudible sounds.

Same applies to the title track: some uninspired sections combined with great guitar. And I can go on with the poor AOR For The Greater The Glory. Dull for about six minutes; it is the moment of another superb guitar work again. But at this pace, an EP would have been more than sufficient.

I would have expected this album to be better, according to those high rates, but it can't really move me. This is a sub-par IQ album of which Towers Of Babble might be somewhat better.

During the first few listening some years ago I had rated this album as good (three stars), but after this final one, I have to say that I just consider it to be average and not worth more than two stars. Maybe that their Christian oriented music is just too much for me (these choirs all the way through are quite boring). But even if I put this aspect aside, the album is just a life size cliché. No personality, little inspiration, few passionate tracks.

There are lots of better neo albums in the prog sphere.