XXV

Well, this album caught me quite by surprise. Pallas always had an edgier sound than most of the so called neo prog bands that appeared in the early 80´s, but XXV (which I heard is supposed to be a kind of sequel to their offical debut, 1984´s The Sentinel) is definitly more a hard rock album than anyrhing else. Not that that per se is bad. Several prog metal CDs are on my top twenty prog records of all time. But this is surely too different, and not quite as inspired as what this group have been making since their excellent come back Beat The Drum.

Longtime singer Alan Reed is gone now. I sorely miss him here. But it seems that, no matter how good and important for the band he was in the past, he couldn´t save this album. The songs are simply too simple, too heavy and not all that great. Sure, nothing here is truly bad, but totally uncharacteristic. The instrumentation is excelent as ever (specially Graeme Murray´s bass runs and Niall Mathewson´s guitar solos), although Ronnie Brown´s keyboards are a bit subdue here. New singer Paul Mackie is good, but he needs time to adjust just yet.

Pallas never did two albums that sounded the same, but clearly, this one is weaker than all they had put out since their triumphant come back in 1998. And indeed, I may be waiting too much since they did so great job with The Cross And The Crucible and The Dreams Of Men. Still, XXV is a bit too bland for my taste. XXV is a hard rock album with some prog bits here and there. The story is ok, the songs are ok, the new vocalist is ok. Such a pity they have done much better so many times before.

I want to believe that this is just a transitional period and that the band will rise above and find their feet again.

Rating: 2 stars.