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Galahad - Seas Of Change CD (album) cover

SEAS OF CHANGE

Galahad

 

Neo-Prog

3.92 | 336 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

lazland
Prog Reviewer
4 stars Given that I was previously a collaborator on the neo-prog team on Prog Archives, it will probably come as a wee bit of a surprise to those who have read my reviews and contributions here that I was never much of a Galahad fan. They were, to me, an okayish sort of act, one of many who came out of those heady days in the 1980's second wave of prog which spawned favourites such as Marillion, IQ, Pendragon & etc.

I thought that the first two albums were rather weak, derivative, and not worthy of further attention, and I lost track of them. That is until 2007, when I gave Empires Never Last a couple of spins, and did not really enjoy what I heard. I basically thought; give up; you don't like them; you can't like everyone.

That is until I read a couple of reviews from alumni of this site for the latest opus, the fact that Lee Abraham, one of my favourite solo artists of recent years, had returned to the fold, and the knowledge that, as a rather sad political obsessive, the LP passed a commentary on the state of modern British politics, which, whether you voted leave or remain, can only be described as being in a shocking mess. Indeed, I have never known anything like it in a 35 year public service career.

So, on all of these levels, this album seemed made for me, and it does not disappoint.

One 42 minute epic, made up of twelve mini pieces merged into one monster of a track. It is rollocking. It races along, and never once loses the attention of the listener. It is a superb collective piece, and includes some rather delicate and lovely pieces by a guest musician I had not heard of previously, one Sarah Bolter on wind instruments.

It would be impossible, and really not give the piece any real justice, to dissect the component parts in a review. Suffice to say that the lyrics perfectly encapsulate the mess we are in, without being overly preachy. The musicianship is never anything less than tight, and mention should go to the marvellous orchestration implemented by Dean Baker, whose at times malevolent keys are to the fore in much of what you hear.

It is nice to be proven wrong, especially where artists and music are concerned. This whole album, which has reworked parts of the suite as two bonus tracks, is a joy to listen to, and will absolutely make me buy and sit down and listen to what I have been missing all of these years.

An excellent album, and a clear highlight of 2018.

lazland | 4/5 |

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