IN A MOMENT OF COMPLETE MADNESS

While 1991's Nothing Is Written was Galahad's first proper release, the band had been around since 1985 and recorded a demo cassette in the late 80's entitled In A Moment Of Madness. The present album appeared in 1993 and contained re-recorded versions of the songs from that old cassette plus some other of the band's earliest compositions. The title, In A Moment Of Complete Madness, is thus very appropriate (and not because the music is completely crazy!). After just one proper album released, then, Galahad were already celebrating their own past with this second album and In A Moment Of Complete Madness thus constituted a step back rather than a step forward for the band. Keeping this in mind, the line "lost in nostalgia, but look to the future" in the chorus of the opening song is very apt.

Nothing Is Written had been a fine debut that showed some of the band's inherent potential, but we would have to wait until the band's third album, 1995's Sleepers, to have that potential fulfilled. The music found on the present album is mostly lightweight Prog with some poppy tendencies. The electronic sounds and hard edged guitars of future releases are still far away at this point. The band's characteristic sound had not yet been developed on these early tunes and overall they come across as rather anonymous here. Though very pleasant, even Stuart Nicholson's voice, that on other releases is very strong and distinctive, comes across as a bit tame and timid here.

I might perhaps be a bit harsher here than actually justified as these are all more than decent songs that constitute an overall pleasant if undemanding listen, but there is nothing that stands out as great. In A Moment Of Complete Madness is thus an enjoyable listen, but it is probably best seen as a release whose purpose was to keep the fans happy while waiting for the next proper album that eventually surfaced in 1995. Sleepers finally established Galahad as a force to be reckoned with. (But we shouldn't forget the very appealing semi-acoustic 1994 release called Not All There by Galahad Acoustic Quintet that sounds entirely different from anything by Galahad proper).

My version of In A Moment Of Complete Madness contains three live bonus tracks. The first of these is a nice live version of Ghost Of Durtal from this very album and the second is a live recording of the best song from Nothing Is Written called Richelieu's Prayer. The final track is a cover of Genesis' The Knife followed by the band's own One For The Road.

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