FOLLOWING GHOSTS

In 1996 Galahad cover Camel's ''Lady fantasy'' for the tribute album ''Harbour of joy'', followed by the first official live CD of the group ''Classic Rock Live''.However keyboardist Karl Garrett decided to leave the band at the end of the year.In 1997 the reduced Galahad release the compilation ''Decade'' with songs from the first three albums on German label Bluestone and finally find a replacement for Garrett on Dean Baker.With the new keyboardist the group released its fourth studio album ''Following ghosts'' in June 1998.

Seems that the group eventually made clear that reproducing an already saturated style would lead to nowhere.With ''Following Ghosts'' Galahad tried something different, adding a bit of personality in their sound, which is still not fully conveincing but definitely heads into a different yet attractive direction.The familiar atmospheric Neo Prog style of the group is now enriched by a variety of flexible instrumental tools, like sampled string sections, loops (much in the vein of MILLENIUM) or electronics to come up with a partly original approach, blending modern Prog with Neo Prog and Pop/Rock.The melodies and choruses sound more memorable despite the stylistically wide array of the group, most of the arrangements are well-crafted and the deep atmosphere is the basic element of the release.The contrast between the Mellotron waves and loops is certainly a different view in music, credited to these Englishmen.On the other hand there is still room for improvement.Some tracks remain very accesible compared to others, while the album's balance needed also a bit of work, especially on the heavy use of sampled instrumentation.

Overall ''Following Ghosts'' was a great achievement by Galahad and a step forward compared to the previous studio releases.This could best described as contemporary Art Rock with strong Prog inspirations as a whole and marks a nice starting point for anyone willing to meet the band's more recent styles.Recommended.