PALLAS

The debut album from Scotland's most successful prog band is a mixture of early neo-prog and hard rock. The live tracks were recorded in a small bar and have a raw quality, they are the equivalent of a good bootleg from the era, while the studio tracks lack the polish that a better budget would have provided. This album is contemporary with both early Marillion and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and has elements of both in its overall sound.

The singer on Arrive Alive is Euan Lowson and he brings a hard rock edge to the band. He provided a much needed focal point in the live setting and was a bit like Gabriel for the theatrics mixed with the Heavy Metal bluster of Di'Anno.

Best songs on the album for me are the longer tracks Queen Of The Night, The Ripper and best of all Crown of Thorns which was the live showpiece at the time. These songs show the bands prog tendencies but are all a bit naive in there approach compared to the next album 'The Sentinel'. They are all still enjoyable as complex songs from young musicians trying to emulate their peers and push the boundaries of the time.

I would recommend the album as an historic record of the bands early days but be prepared for the less than ideal production values of an independent 1981 release. 3.5 stars

The Sentinel is the debut studio album by neo alumni Pallas, released in 1984, although the release date had been put back by EMI, who, apparently, did not think that the initial press contained enough "hits". Many commentators have cited record company "interference" for the relatively poor sales of this work, moving it away from its original state to something altogether more "accessible" in parts. Comparisons have been made, of course, with Marillion's Script released the previous year, with many saying that this could have outshone it. Actually, the truth is rather more simple than all of this. The Sentinel simply ain't as good as Script, end of.

Conceptually, it as certainly very bold, telling the story of a search for Atlantis as the cure for east v west wars, and this theme would, of course, be taken up again with the 2011 follow up, XXV. The latter has the advantage of benefitting from 21st century production standards, because this, with the legendary Eddie Offord at the helm, sounds, well, dreadful, with huge chunks lost in the mix. Offord, of course, had ceased to be a "relevant" producer some years before. Presumably, EMI thought he would provide a magic touch and give them another monster prog hit.

Musically, it was certainly accomplished, and it is fair to say that Pallas took their chief influences from a wider range than Marillion or IQ. In here, you can hear the obvious Yes, ELP references, alongside sci-fi era Rush and others. Highlight for me here is the fine keyboard work undertaken by Ronnie Brown, and the album is, in truth, better when it is instrumental, because the vocals of Euan Lowson always grated. The arrival of Alan Reed would, IMO, take the band far further forward.

So, how to rate this? It is difficult rating an album you were familiar with in 1984 in 2013, and especially judging it by today's digital production standards. So, I think the best thing to say is that this is an important album in the context of progressive music history, was very enjoyable when I first got it, but less so now, and (in whatever decade) nothing near as good as some of its "competitors".

So, three stars for this, a good album, but newcomers to Pallas might be better off starting with the sequel, because that is a heavy belter.

Excellent album!!! I don't know the reason why this is so low rating! Maybe people hate the '80 era or the plastic keyboards...but here these are fantastic, i think Tony banks should learn how play the keys in the eighties from Ronnie Brown!

Pallas in this album try to be much mainstream oriented from the old one, in this album u can hear much pop and new wave elements, but despite this poppish mood, the prog rock is still presents in 2 long and epic tracks in Pallas style. Rat racing has a very strong energy, with a fantastic and fantasy intro...full of new age and orchestral keyboars riff that sounds very innovative for that period, after 2 minutes start a crescendo and the pulsing bass line...explode creating a funkadelic nuance and with symphonic and spacey keyboards; here alan reed sing with a teatrical manner...different from Peter Gabriel or other singer from the past, and all is very enjoable. This track continues with an intricate passage between guitar and keys, with several drum breaks and time signatures to end in a pompous and epic style. The 2 long track Sanctuary is a much reflexive track, with a melancholic and pop/soul feeling for the first 2 and half minutes, but after that the music become much interesting...with dark and tribal passages with the evocative style of Alan Reed, and after other 2 minutes the music change again to become electro/industrial...for 1 minutes full of xilophone and digital percussions, but soon start a guitar solo that drive the listener in another dimension, and this will the entrance for the final coda that end the epic track full of symphonic chorus, double layers guitar solos, cathy keyboards riff and other arrangements...that fade out slowly, fantastic!!!!!! Another good track is "Just a memory", that is a really touching ballad in the vein of synth pop and new wave style, with cathing melodies, with a nice guitar solo.

The other songs are good too, especially "immagination", that despite it's a bit poppish, it contains good keyboards ideas and boombastic chorus!

Recomend to fans of keyboards driven or neoprog fans, 4 stars!

Welcome to the end of the world. Though I haven't read the official version, the story I gather from the lyrics and from passing mention in other reviews is that this is a concept album about the Atlantians or some other advanced race coming to give us one last chance at making an ideal world of love and peace or we all get obliterated. Nice deal.

When I first listened to this album I found plenty of things to like about it but also some things that weakened my impression, most notably some of the lyrics. But after a few listens, I thought more about the story and well, once you consider that this is a concept album, there are some things forgiven, and my impression became more favourable.

The album begins welcoming us while a DJ from a rock radio station tells us it's going to be a scary day in a big bad world. A few synthesizer notes prepare us for the music to come and when it comes it's an eruption of dramatic heavy metal. Heavy power chords and synth chords are backed by a pummelling drum performance. This track, 'Falling Down' sounds impressive and there is a wonderfully rocking bass riff that carries the verses. However, the excitement wears down a little as the lyrics begin to sound like they were written by some eighties metal band: 'Our world is falling down. Spinning round. Falling down. We're out of control. We're falling down. Spinning round. Falling down.' It sounds quite familiar, and one thing I have noticed as I get older is that as you follow more world news and read more about history then you will realize that the human race has been pretty much the same since history first was recorded. Which leads me to conclude that we are not spinning or falling anywhere. We just are like this and we actually should be trying to climb up from the bottom.

Anyway, there's a guitar solo which sounds alright and then a somewhat annoying synthesizer solo. The Moog solo that follows, however, is sweet and the song has my attention again. It closes with dramatic chords and sounds like symphonic metal almost. The song is a good start though I find myself looking forward to something better.

Communications over static and some spooky SF keyboard effects introduce what is a very bombastic peace of progressive metal, the second track 'Crash and Burn'. Guitar and Hammond organ boom like thunder and those drums just don't let up. The verse parts are a little calmer but once the solos come in the guitar work is bordering on insane. If Pallas was a neo prog band before, they have sure ventured far into prog metal on this album. There is one instrumental part that reminds me of Dream Theater, but not for long. This is more as if modern Uriah Heep decided to do something really powerful and prog-like, instead of a hard rock album with prog bits thrown in (like the disappointing Sea of Light, which I bought a few months ago, was like).

'Something in the Deep' takes us below the waves into a peaceful world with a synthesizer sound that makes me think of a slowly swimming manta ray with bioluminescence illuminating its underside. The song itself is not so interesting and at first seems like a track to skip. But the lyrics tell us that someone deep beneath the waves is watching and is disappointed in the way we live. Finally we hear, 'They are watching,' and the music soon changes to a powerful orchestral peace with what sounds like real strings. Then abruptly it ends with an ominous deep keyboard rumble of notes.

A lone repeated piano note and more disjointed voices over static open the fourth track, 'Monster'. It soon becomes a heavy rock tune and musically promises to be pretty interesting without being actually impressive. The lyrics reach a very low lameness at one point though: 'I am just an ordinary guy. The world's gone crazy. I couldn't tell you why." Again, I refer to my theory that the world has always been crazy and you just have to live long enough and read enough to realize that. Again, young metal band lyrics.

'Alien Messiah' is where the album's story really begins to take shape. In the spirit of Voivod's 17-minute epic, 'Jack Luminous', a being speaks to the people of earth to offer to lead us to a world of peace. 'I offer you direction you have never seen before.' The mysterious being then reveals his true purpose in a partially whispered monologue, which is not included in the lyrics. He tells us that he's not really here to rule us but to see us return to the better life the Atlantians intended for us millennia ago. Our greed and hatefulness and our cold use of technology are ruining us. I wonder if this visitor stands outside supermarkets and hands out booklets for better, happier living. I actually love the song but this spoken part is a little embarrassing if my wife hears me listening to this. As far as the drama of a story-telling concept album goes, I guess it suites the album.

Now the deal is stated in the next track. 'XXV Part 1: Twenty-five Good Honest Men' is what they human race must produce for this visitor within 25 hours or we are all toast. The song has an arena rock chorus and a power metal feel. I like how this race from a 'higher intellectual plane' says that if we can't live in peace we will be exterminated. Sounds like Judgement Day but without the Saviour. 'We are our own saviours,' sang Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and this alien visitor seems to bring the same message. Except that these guys want to 'turn (our) children into ash'. Are they expecting a warm welcome with fighting words like that?

'Young God' is probably one of my favourite tracks off the album. It's heavy and aggressive, though perhaps not as progressive sounding as 'Crash and Burn'. There are no embarrassing spoken lyrics. This being is warning us that if we can't comply with the request, 'there will be no second chances'. We will be destroyed 'nation by nation.' By now Pallas have proved that they can play very well as a progressive metal band. Aside from 'Something in the Deep' and a few bits here and there with piano, this album is really packed with high energy, heavy rock.

'Sacrifice' rocks in with a great guitar riff. By now we are probably wandering into Uriah Heep territory, stylistically speaking. The song tells us that the human race is not going to sit back and take this and asks what we are willing to do about this threat. 'We'll fight for our children that they might survive'. However, we also know that 'This is a war we cannot win'. The guitar solo is really a wonderful piece of heavy metal work.

'Blackwood' is an instrumental peace with more orchestral sounds and later a female vocalist singing high notes. It's a serene peace that calls to mind images in slow motion of Gandalf appearing with the bring white light that makes the goblins run away. Or perhaps we can imagine the faces of the main cast of humans in this movie as they look at their loved ones one last time, faces smeared in sweat and dirt, before the final moment. 'Blackwood' segues into 'Violet Sky', a slower piece that suggests our time has come to an end. We did not comply with the visitor's demand for 25 good honest men (perhaps mixed with some women too). The singer speaks to his lover, talking about watching cities burn and rivers run dry and them making love for the last time (I think I'd be a little distracted to think about making love before such a spectacle but maybe that's just me). The picture inside the CD booklet shows a smiling woman in her man's embrace while pod-like crafts rise from a sea under a dark cloud sprouting water spouts. I wish the acoustic guitar in this song were a little louder. It seems to have been recorded as if it were meant to be background music and yet it is quite beautiful.

'XXV Part 2: The Unmakers Awake'. That's it. Huge mechanical centaurs are spouting fire and totally trashing our cities in the picture. Apparently the Unmakers have come from the sea, and so the notion that it is the Atlantians who are now pissed at us and the plan to wipe us out seems confirmed. There's soft acoustic guitar at first, then sounds of a radio voice, sound effects that could be of war, and dramatic a keyboard and a choir. Piano and sound effects, then the heavy rock song kicks in. The lyrics are brief. We are going down. It's a very dramatic and heavy ending with an orchestra for extra punch, and the track concludes with what sounds like real choral vocals and not that fake synthesizer chorus setting that appears earlier in the album. At last we are back to a static radio broadcast and we are left to wonder what has become of the world and the human race.

As a heavy prog or progressive metal album, 'XXV' doesn't rank as highly as albums by some bands whose pursuit of the genre is their career. But overall I find myself enjoying the music more and more after each listen. There are plenty of sound effects thrown in to add to the imagery of the story and I like the use of the orchestra and choir. I read that this is a continuation of a story that began on their first album 'The Sentinel'. Now I am looking into getting that one as well. One other interesting note, the photo for the song 'Monster' shows a bunch of TV sets with different pictures on each screen and two of the screens have the cover for Pallas' previous two albums 'The Cross and the Crucible' and 'The Dreams of Men'. It makes me wonder if there is any connection. I have listened to samples of both and I am planning to get 'Dreams?' later.

I don't know what Pallas fans will think of this as this is the first album of theirs that I have ever heard, but I think it's worth checking out. I am torn between giving XXV 3 or 4 stars, so I will give it 3 for the PA community but I give it 4 stars for my own preference. It could be an excellent addition to any prog collection if this is your kind of prog. I'm glad I bought it.

Aging with class.

Remember your uncle who patronizes you with phrases like: 'In my days, cars were sturdy..In my days, kids were polite...' ? He's finding tough to age and remembers the past with nostalgia. Well, we cannot accuse Pallas of being like that. I'm not saying that they revolutionize the genre, but they do walk the walk musically.

Finally, Pallas reached the venerable stage of 'prog veterans' BUT they also learned to play well enough to create a sound that rivalize with youngsters. Funny. Because young bands are targetting the Old School and the older ones are trying to catch the train again. Well, with this album they succeeded at it, without sounding too corny (I'm looking to you Arena) or to re- create faded magic (Thick as a Brick 2). They definitely can play (steroids rage guitar solos and double bass drums) and neat-O keyboard licks.

To me Pallas still have gasoline in the reservoir. Do I like them? I think so. Would I run 5 miles into the slush to give them a high five? No.

3 stars is enough.

The return of Pallas with ''Beat the drum'' was quite succesful, as the band signed a contract with Inside Out just after a year of its release.This was the needed push for the group to begin the proceedings to the recording of a brand new album.This would see the light just three years after Pallas' comeback under the title ''The Cross & The Crucible'', a concept album around the endless battle between religion and science.

Musically nothing seems to have changed regarding the new style the band established in late-90's.The first tracks retain the epic and heavily lyrical sound of Pallas, where there is plenty of room for orchestral keyboards, choirs, heavy bass lines and strong trippy guitars in a very atmospheric way.Alan Reeds' voice still is a trademark for the group with his over-sensitive chords, while the tracks have a slightly spacey approach at moments.By the middle of the album the quality drops significantly.''Who's to Blame?'', ''The Blinding Darkness'' and ''Generations'' are just mediocre Soft Rockers with an evident AOR touch, still the Neo Prog sensibilities are obvious, but the choruses are rather forgettable and the musicianship holds less interest compared to the opening tracks, which leave much to be desired.Fortunately the later material of the release offers accesible but highly cinematic and grandiose Neo Prog of good inspiration.The keyboard work of Ronnie Brown becomes the leading force and the musicianship is highlighted by his wash of dominant organs and flashy, virtuosic synthesizers.The symphonic influences become more apparent, Reed performs at his highest level and the early-80's bombastic Pallas style is back in the forefront in tracks such as ''Midas Touch'' and the fantastic ''Celebration!''.

''The Cross & The Crucible'' just confirms the new face of Pallas in the millenium, an easy-going mix of Neo Prog with light Orchestral Rock and Soft Rock touches, pretty grandiose and fairly accesible, whether the listener likes it or not.Some tracks do not do much, some others though show how talented this group of musicians is.Warmly recommended despite the black holes in the middle of the album.

Pallas fifth studio album from 2005 named the dreams of men show the band in a new dimension. To me this album show a heavier side of the band with more edgy passages then on previous work The cross and the crucible. In places some pieces souds like a metalized neo prog, not bad at all but I'm more attached of the previous album sound more. Some great tunes here, the best is Too Close To The Sun a very worthy 11 min neo prog goodness, The wolf with some impressive bass lines, very energic and well performed and the first two tracks who show a mixture of progressive arrangements with more heavier sections. I really like this album, nothing is groundbreaking here like most of the reviewers saw , but is good towards great in places. The voice is ok, good most of the time, what is not to my liking is that this neo prog band trry to sound heavier then usual, if they succeded I can say so so, some arrangements are excellent some are ordinary like on Messiah a totaly forgetable tune. Pallas remain in second league neo prog bands even this one and previous album is quite good most of the time. They are not a prolific band in the 30 years career they offer only 6 albums to date. I don't considered that this is the best Pallas album, to me The cross and the crucible is better.3-3.5 stars for this one.

Pallas' The Cross and the Crucible was hailed as a major return to form for the band, but I guess that's only the case if you define "form" for Pallas as "capable of making OK but forgettable melodic neo-prog albums". Basing the concept out of the tired old false dichotomy between science and religion, listeners are likely to react to the lyrics either with enthusiastic agreement if they happen to agree with the band's premises already or profound irritation at their preachiness if they don't. As for the music, it's plodding, tedious, and shows none of the flair or imagination which made the Atlantis Suite on the reconstructed Sentinel so good. Plus the album is mixed really badly, so a lot of the time the musical performances are very subdued.

After a long hiatus, Pallas finally returned to the fray with Beat the Drum, a competent but not to my ears a particularly outstanding release. Whilst the music here doesn't pander to the mainstream to anything like the extent of tracks like Arrive Alive or Cut and Run from The Sentinel did, I wouldn't say they were as interesting to prog fans as the Atlantis Suite from that selfsame album was; what we have here is pleasant but not particularly daring or innovative melodic rock with AORish leanings. It's an enjoyable album which certainly isn't an embarrassment to the band, but there's little here to save it from being overshadowed by more prominent releases by the group.

Buyer beware: not all editions of The Sentinel are equal. The best versions are the ones with the track listing outlined above, in which the three songs the band cut as commercially accessible standalone singles to support the album are placed at the start and the following seven tracks comprise the famed Atlantis Suite that was a staple of early Sentinel live shows. The group originally planned to release the album consisting solely of the Atlantis Suite from start to finish, with the commercial songs released as singles to placate EMI; however, record company politics resulted in the running order of the album being tampered with to remove some of the Suite tracks and adding in some of the singles, almost completely obscuring the concept. Though most versions available these days present the suite in the form it was originally intended, it's worth checking to make sure you aren't getting a version with a botched running order.

But enough of that - what of the music itself? Well, those three mainstream tracks leading off the album are almost completely skippable - I never listen to them when I put the album on these days - but the Atlantis Suite itself is great fun. Eddie Offord's presence as producer may make you tempted to make Yes comparisons, but personally I'm more reminded of a cross between the spacey majesty of Eloy and the drama and intricacy of classic Genesis. Either way, it's a treat for neo-prog fans - it's just a shame so many people just heard the single tracks and passed this one over.