THE CROSS & THE CRUCIBLE

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.