THE DREAMS OF MEN

If one type of prog has gained in success and renown, it's the Néo type. With super albums like The Visitor (arena), Subterrenea (iq), Between Sunsets (satellite), Marbles (marillion) and Believe (pendragon), who would denied the potential of the formula?

The albums named before are more on the mellow side, but since 3 years we assist at an increasing musical hardening of the Néo genre: Contagion and Pepper's Ghost (arena), Dark Matter (iq), Man Made Machine (carptree) and Evening Games (satellite)...and now probably the most promising néo album of 2005 : the new Pallas.

This was my first attempt with Pallas. I read somewhere they were different with their celtic sound, huge choir effects and more edged guitars. Well, I'm certainly not disappoint but the heavyest band in Néo is still Arena. The keyboards are indeed very 80's so songs like Too Close to the Sun stays light as a feather. Personnal taste but I do prefer the darker, modern side of the Korg Triton as Clive Nolan of Arena does it so well.

It's true, Pallas do sound a tad different. I especially like the almost constant presence of a loud and complex Rickenbaker bass line. The fiddle is certainly a nice touch, giving 'feeling' to the already emotion packed songs. Some crunchy guitars (in a rather small amount) are giving a younger feel to band that's not getting any younger (like in Messiah and Bringer of Dreams).

The lyrics are well thought, many times refering to biblical and spiritual subjects. A touchy and strange commercial subject that we ecountered in 2003 with Glass Hammer's Lex Rex. If your faith is tingling, give it a try.

It's not the album I was expecting, but in the same time I'm pleasently surprised. Some songs have such pretty and intense orchestration that I'm forgiving the band immediately. There's a strong desire in every song to please the fan and listener; we sense a lot of thinking to give the song a personnal soul.

It sounds enormous, it feels great in headphones or in the car and some songs are just fun at headbanging to. It also feels fresher and crispier than Cross and the Crucible. Also a good improvement in songwriting and they've get rid of most of the pastoral, churchish feeling.

Man, 2005's been a great year after all!

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