PALLAS

This expansive boxed set from Esoteric brings together on CD freshly spruced-up presentations of essentially everything that Palllas put out during the 1980s. The title is a bit of a misnomer - nothing on this box was recorded after 1985, the Wedge album having been held up for a while and then released with a total lack of publicity. (The included booklet has a hilarious anecdote about how the band appeared at an HMV store to promote the album - the chain being owned by EMI at the time - only for interested customers to discover that they didn't have it in stock, prompting them to go to the rival Virgin Megastore to buy it!) It's also worth noting that this doesn't include the band's absolutely earliest recorded work, the Pallas EP from the late 1970s - but the band have essentially disowned it.

Still, this is arguably Pallas at the moment they made their biggest cultural splash - a moment in the sun which they'd hoped would lead to the sort of success enjoyed by Marillion, their sometimes-rivals sometimes-comrades in the early days, but which was squandered, leading to a long hiatus until 1998's Beat the Drum. First up is their self-released live album Arrive Alive - finally issued on CD in its original running order, with none of the live tracks swapped out for studio demos! (The Arrive Alive single, the source of some of said demos, is appended as bonus tracks.) Having heard prior CD reissues of Arrive Alive, I can say that the album sounds better than it ever has - the original masters having, astonishingly, been unearthed after all this time to give the album a much-needed spring cleaning.

Naturally, you also get The Sentinel in here - in fact, two versions of it, one with the original UK mix and one with the updated mix released in the US. Both discs follow the original running order, with the UK mix disc including all of the Atlantis-related tracks cut from the original album and relegated to B-sides (along with Crown of Thorns, a lynchpin of early live shows) - presumably different mixes for the US were never prepared for those cuts.

The decision to restore the old running order takes a little fiddling if you want to listen to the Atlantis Suite in a rough approximation of its intended order, but playlists and programmable CD players make that easy these days, right? For my money, I find the most satisfactory order being starting off with the poppier, self-contained numbers (Shock Treatment, Cut and Run, and Eyes In the Night), moving on to Crown of Thorns as a palette-cleanser to ease into the proggier tracks, and then an Atlantis Suite running order of Rise and Fall, East West, March On Atlantis, Heart Attack, Atlantis, and Ark of Infinity.

Much fun and good-natured debate will surely be had as other listeners tweak their running orders - and bicker over which of the US and UK mixes they prefer - the band prefer the punchier US mix, but I actually like the gentler UK one somewhat better. With the box providing you all of the Sentinel-era studio recordings (with alternate mixes where those exist), it gives you everything you need to come to your own conclusions.

The band's first Alan Reed-fronted album - the aforementioned Wedge - is included, and as bonus tracks you also get the Knightmoves EP, including two demo tracks (Mad Machine and A Stitch In Time) released as a 7" bonus single with the original release of Knightmoves. On top of that, the included Blu-Ray offers both original singer Euan Lowson and Alan in action - Alan gets the lion's share of it in the form of the Live From London performance (originally broadcast on the same TV show which recorded memorable gigs by Twelfth Night and IQ), whilst the Eyes In the Night music video captures Euan mere months before he'd be cut from the band.

Both the Euan-fronted and Alan-fronted versions of the band have more to offer here, however! The "At the BBC and More" disc includes the Paris Is Burning single and B-side (The Hammer Falls) from early 1983, the band's triumphant 1983 set at the Reading Festival (from right before they jetted off to record The Sentinel with Eddy Offord), and a BBC session from early 1984 to promote The Sentinel. Taken all together, this offers an alternate spin on the band as they existed at the time of The Sentinel, with familiar material often given a punchier spin than attained on The Sentinel itself (in either mix).

On the Alan Reed side of the coin, the final CD here is a live show from Ritzy's in Aberdeen in late 1985 - chronologically it's the last material in this boxed set to be recorded, and it finds the band continuing the process they'd begun on Knightmoves and The Wedge of reconciling their commercially-inclined side (always a factor, as the Arrive Alive single demonstrates) and their proggier instincts. It's decent, and a nice chance to hear live cuts from The Wedge from shortly after the album was recorded... but maybe I detect a touch of weariness in the performance.

I could be wrong - maybe I'm just being influenced by knowing what was to come for the band. But it's hard not to listen to the band trying their best in a comparatively small venue here and not be reminded that, simultaneously, Marillion were conquering he world with Misplaced Childhood. Pallas had the next-best run with the major labels after Marillion of any of the early neo-prog bands; remember that it only took one major label release to derail Twelfth Night, Pendragon and IQ were only ever signed to arm's-length satellite labels with distribution deals rather than signing to a major label proper, and Solstice flat-out ignored the mainstream music industry altogether.

And yet where Marillion had thrived, Pallas floundered. This boxed set aptly demonstrates that this was not due to inherent shortcomings in their music as such - they might have never put out a true five-star classic in the 1980s, but there's potential here which, nourished sympathetically, could have flowered into something wonderful.

Pallas' major label debut displayed a stark gulf between the more commercial-leaning tracks and their more prog-leaning pieces. With Euan Lowson out as frontman, Alan Reed installed in his place, and the band on borrowed time, The Wedge finds them trying to more smoothly blend the two approaches. Their commercial side seems to have the edge - and Alan Reed is able to switch from the prog turf of Abel Ganz, his former band, to the more arena rock sound of this album fairly deftly. You can absolutely imagine this incarnation of Pallas opening for Asia, and whether or not that's a good thing overall depends on your tolerance for Asia.

The running order puts the more poppy efforts like Dance Through the Fire and single release Throwing Stones At the Wind at the start, leading to slower and slightly more prog-inflected material bringing up the rear - an approach take on on some latter-day CD rereleases of The Sentinel, come to think of it. I can understand why prog purists might turn off the album after the first few songs - and those who exert patience might find that the album is too light on complexity and intricacy to win them over by the time the gentle closing track Just a Memory fades out. What it lacks in those categories, however, it makes up for in a sort of mid-1980s atmosphere which some (like me) may find cool and appealing, but others will find it doesn't emotionally connect with them.

On balance, I quite like it, but I can see why it was perhaps time to go on hiatus for a bit and reconvene with new purpose later on.

This was a concert that Pallas recorded for the Live From London television series in 1985 - a year when the show would feature a number of other neo-prog bands, including Twelfth Night (captured on their own Live From London release) and IQ (the recording being released as the Living Proof live album). It captures the band when they were just about to knuckle down to record their second album, The Wedge, which would prove to be the last flowering of their original run, the group sliding thereafter into a hiatus which lasted for around a decade.

Here, though, new frontman Alan Reed proves equally adept at the group's newer material (some Wedge pieces yet to be ironed out in the studio and selections from the Knightmoves EP which preceded this) and older stuff originally recorded with Euan Lowson, with the band deftly integrating their commercial-leaning and prog-leaning sides somewhat better than they had on The Sentinel. Alan gives every impression of being fully committed to what the band is doing, and if Pallas would falter later on, perhaps it was more down to EMI's chronic mishandling of their promotion than anything the band themselves lacked.

Having parted ways with Euan Lowson following the muted reception of The Sentinel, Pallas picked up a new frontman in the form of Abel Ganz' singer Alan Reed and wasted little time in recording some demos, workshopping some songs, and turning out this EP, the first officially released output of the Reed-fronted band. One of the issues The Sentinel had was that there was something of a stark difference between the commercially-oriented tracks (Eyes In the Night, Shock Treatment, and Cut and Run) and the more prog-oriented material, and Knightmoves finds the band finding a compromise between the punch and power of the former and the intricacies of the latter to develop a new sound prior to attempting their second album, The Wedge.

As we now know, The Wedge would be their last gasp of the 1980s, with the band eventually entering hibernation before they reemerged with 1998's Beat the Drum. However, if you'd heard this at the time you might have thought there was every reason to be hopeful. Sanctuary is probably the best track, but the terser Stranger and Nightmare also have their charms, and in general the band seem to be doing a good job of developing and evolving their sound.

Released in limited numbers on the tiny Granite Wax label, Pallas' Arrive Alive single is not to be confused with the live album of the same name, though the title track appears on some rereleases on that. The title track finds the band offering a more commercial sound than the original configuration of the live album showcases, working in a touch of new wave influence despire the band's live sound of the era being steeped in classic prog with a touch of bite reminiscent of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. The B-side is a keyboard-oriented oddity which has been less widely compiled, though it has emerged as a bonus track on the Arrive Alive disc in Eyes In the Night boxed set, which compiles all of the band's 1980s output, along with the single mix of the title track, which the band refer to the rejected mix which somehow ended up being the one which most rereleases of the live album have included.

I don't think there is much doubt in anyone's minds that one of the most important bands in the Eighties prog scene was Pallas, whose 'Arrive Alive' cassette in 1981 led to the two massively important albums 'The Sentinel' and 'The Wedge'. There was a significant gap until the band reformed to record 'Beat The Drum' in 1999, with founder Graeme Murray and long-time members Niall Matthewson, Ronnie Brown and ex-Abel Ganz singer Alan Reed being joined by drummer Colin Fraser. That line-up released three well-received albums and then Alan left to follow a solo career, being replaced by Paul Mackie, with whom Pallas released two more with the last being 2014's 'Wearewhoweare'. Then it went somewhat quiet on the Pallas front, and what no-one expected was a new album in 2024, a full fifty years since the band were first formed, and with Alan back at the front. Colin has departed, and the line-up is Alan Reed (lead and backing vocals), Niall Mathewson (guitars, percussion programming, vocals), Graeme Murray (bass, Taurus bass pedals, 12-string guitar, vocals), and Ronnie Brown (keyboards, percussion programming, vocals), back in the studio together for the first time since 2005's 'The Dreams of Men'.

One thing I noticed is that in the press release it states, "This is an album which repays countless listens" and that is definitely something I can attest to. The first time I played it I thought it was quite weak with not enough energy and passion, and then the second time it started to attract my attention as I realised just how many highs and lows there were with this and the way the music kept moving, swelling and descending, but it wasn't until the third time that I realised just how good this really is and that instead of being something I was unlikely to listen to again it is indeed a masterpiece ? it shows the need to play albums all the way through at least a couple of times before writing about them, something I know many reviewers tend not to do.

Lyrically this is fascinating as while 'The Sentinel' echoed the concerns of the cold war and the shadows it cast on all of us, 'The Messenger' finds the band reacting to the existential threats to the world we find ourselves in. From what we've done to the world, to the politics that shape it. I have always thought of Alan as Pallas' classic singer, possibly because I enjoyed his vocals with Abel Ganz and numerous works with Clive Nolan, but also as he was the singer in the Nineties when I was so heavily involved with the local prog scene. Strangely I never saw them in concert at the time, as I once left a venue before they were due to come onstage as I had fallen asleep during the previous band's set (I was working nights at the time) and was worried I would not be safe to drive the hundred miles home after Pallas had played, thinking I would catch them again, but I never did.

That is definitely my loss, as while back then they were a little more brash, here they have matured like a fine wine to create something which is full of nuances and embellishments here and there. Niall has taken more of a back seat, coming in to provide emphasis when the need is required, but often letting Graeme (especially with the pedals) and Ronnie to provide the backdrop for Alan to pitch his voice against. I am normally scathing of the use of programmed drums, but due to the style being employed they are not nearly as annoying as normal, and while they will need a "live" drummer to reproduce this onstage here it actually works quite well.

It is packed full of emotion, with multiple threads allowing Alan to play many parts, with the arrangements being massively complex yet also seeming quite simple with everything there for a purpose, with everything in its place. This is one heck of a return from four guys whose first album together was 'The Wedge' back in 1986. So when is the next one?

PALLAS is rightfully known as one of the earliest neo-prog bands that along with Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pendragon and Solstice ushered in the second wave of popular progressive rock in the early 1980s. What's not well known however is that the band formed as far back as 1974 in Aberdeen, Scotland and spent many years hitting the club circuit with the mission of keeping symphonic prog alive while the entire prog scene was clearly in decline. What's also interesting is that the band was first called Rainbow until Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple and assembled a band of the same name and achieved superstardom. After a brief stint as Pallas Anthene, the second part was dropped and has been simply PALLAS ever since.

While the first proper PALLAS album didn't emerge until 1984 way after its contemporaries jumped on the on the neo-prog bandwagon, the band did predate its competition and in fact released its debut EP simply titled THE PALLAS EP as early as 1978 however PALLAS was an entirely different band in those days with only founder Graeme Murray remaining by the time "The Sentinel" saw the light of day. THE PALLAS EP was a completely different beast than anything that came after and wouldn't even be recognizable as a PALLAS release even by the staunchest of followers. Pressed only once as a 7" vinyl recording with four tracks, this earliest offering from PALLAS found itself in a tug of war between Genesis inspired progressive rock and the contemporary sounds of punk rock. This hard to find musical artifact didn't even have a proper album cover and was simply released in a plain 45 styled sleeve with a simple THE PALLAS EP stamped on it.

One of the most unusual moments for any band that would be called neo-prog, PALLAS delivers a strange hybrid of punk rock simplicity with the progressive rock instrumentation such as a mellotron and 12-string guitar. Avoiding any time signature workouts, THE PALLAS EP focused more on simple punk rock songs with titles like "Reds Under The Beds" and "Thought Police" which displayed an anarchic sense of paranoia right out of the Sex Pistols or Crass playbook however the unusual electronic embellishments and high register vocal style of Peter Gabriel and early neo-prog clearly kept this in a world all its own. While Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf were flirting with punk rock crossover moments, their music provided a much more nuanced approach and greater finesse.

THE PALLAS EP is a crude first attempt at the recording process with a shoddy production and garage rock style songwriting. The four tracks on board do offer distinct melodic developments but stick to a short punchy 4-minute-ish running time. The lyrics almost sound like a parody with the opening "Reds Under The Beds" referring to the Red Scare of the Soviet Union and the ensuing paranoia the West had during the era about commies emerging from every nook and cranny ready to dethrone democracy in a McCarthy-esque coup d'erat. "Thought Police" is equally head scratching as it features a few prog moves such as an opening synth solo while three chord guitar punk banters on in accompaniment. The vocals are fairly bad with a laughable attempt to sound punk but failing to evoke all the proper attitude that made punk rock so effective.

"CUUK" offers a bit of bagpipe sounds to a less punk influenced sound and more reliant on hard rock. Vaguely sounding like what Big Country would conjure up in the 80s, the track was perhaps the most interesting musically speaking. The final "Wilmot Dovehouse MP" almost sounds like a tribute to The Who with its Pete Townsend guitar strumming technique but mixes the punkish guitar and bass moves with a trippy new wave styled keyboard heft. The vocals are in the style of an impish elf half-narrating and half-singing a storyline. The EP is one of a kind really and while not even remotely essential for lovers of the neo-prog style, it certainly is an interesting little curiosity that showcased a band experimenting with its stylistic approach before finally latching onto the 80s scene that would make them one of the top artists in the neo-prog second wave of progressive rock. Hard to find but available for a quick spin on the band's Bandcamp site. It's so bad that it's good in a Shaggs sorta way so i'll give it 3 stars.

In the seemingly revolving door of original neo-prog bands, namely Marillion, IQ, Pendragon, and Pallas (you can throw in Arena as a later add-on), releasing great albums and reclaiming some illusory throne, the competition is quite stiff as each tries to secure its place again. Well Pallas has certainly the perfect album to challenge all comers, including the newer breed like Galahad, Sylvan, Mystery, Drifting Sun, and hundreds more. "The Messenger" arrives just before Santa Claus it seems, as a rather unexpected gift for fans of melodic symphonic prog, perhaps too late to place very high on the 2023 charts but certainly will lead the charge into 2024! This veteran Scottish band began with a killer debut "The Sentinel" back in 1984 (Hello, George!) and has released a constant steam of enjoyable albums, some genuinely excellent like "The Dreams of Men" (2005) and 2014's "Wearewhoweare". Alan Reed is back on the microphone and the core trio of Graeme Murray, Niall Matthewson, and Ronnie Brown take care of the instrumental design, with the latter two handling the percussion programming. Fifty minutes of inspired modern prog, superb production values, 6 titillating tracks and adorned by one of the most pleasing covers in many a decade.

"Sign of the Times" wastes little of the clock, plunging headfirst into a salacious mood, setting the vein for the entire album, a heady confrontation between misty atmospherics and influential bombast. Niall's guitars scorch with merciless impunity, Ronnie's keyboards a perfect foil as it drenches the arrangements with dense symphonics, a thudding bass undertow, all united in aiding Alan to communicate his story of the seemingly hopeless human condition, as it continues to struggle with war, conflict, and suffering. We have progressed magnificently in some areas but so precious little in some of the basics that has plagued mankind since the dawn of time. Stupidity, corruption, selfishness, lies, and depression are the themes evoked on "The Great Attractor", a raging bulldozer of altering anger, disturbing disillusionment, and furious frustration. The arrangement is noisy, brash, and depressing, as little salvation seems to appear over the crest of endless suspicion and cruel manipulation. The sonically evolving "Fever Pitch" is an ear catching mini epic that slowly raises the temperature, as Alan convincingly conveys his inner pain, the guitars screeching in disbelief, shoved along by some rather mammoth programmed drums. As the silence beckons, a piano echoes briefly before being bullied by an infuriating guitar solo that wishes to condemn in the harshest terms the futility of it all. "Heavy Air" comes across a sorrowful lament, as 'time does not stand still', the solemn keyboards spewing a dreamy trembling of emotions, the mood oppressive and symphonics verging on surrender. Alan delivers a majestic vocal delivery, absolutely convincing and heartfelt to the bone. The volatile guitar solo, caressed by compelling mellotrons and a somber bass only complements the anguish. "The Nine" is the highlight track here, an exquisite piece of portentous music, with ghostly intent and frightening disposition, verging on a horror soundtrack due to the creative theatrics of the vocals. Infernal, with the devil's evil eyes fierily omnipresent, the choir sounds coming from the recesses of the molten caverns of inner earth, the orchestral transitions in synch with the lyrical intransigence. Thrilling but drenched in fear. The title track is a 13 minute + epic that functions as both a recap of all the fury previously conveyed, as well as a catalyst for some unheralded saviour to appear and liberate mankind from its own self-imposed shackles. A forlorn Spanish guitar and an ornate piano unite, as Alan utters: 'only the truth can take control', perhaps suggesting some form of imminent deliverance. The persistent choir erupts, the piano remains in misery, the guitar twirls in circular scorn, as the harmony vocals join in on the message of divine intervention with 'nothing left to give'. The true meaning of apocalypse is after all, revelation!

4.5 envoys but does require repeated spins to truly appreciate

Wow. Love this. I've been adding new names to my neo-prog favourites over the last 20 years. Listening to The Dreams of Men is one of those moments when you think how have I missed this one? I've listened to random bits and pieces of their music over the years and rejected them (as was the case with Galahad until Empires Never Last).

It was listening to one hour and forty two minutes of The Edge of Time compilation that drew me in. It led me to look up the original Ghostdancers track on The Dreams of Men, and from there I have a new favourite neo-prog album. 4 stars.

The Cross & the Crucible is the fourth full-length album of Scottish neoprog band Pallas, their second after the long break they took between the end of the 1980s the late 1990s. The line-up who recorded The Cross & the Crucible is the same that had recorded their 1999 record Beat the Drum, and is comprised of bass player Graeme Murray, guitarist Niall Mathewson, keyboard player Ronnie Brown, drummer Colin Fraser and singer Alan Reed. This contributes to give a sense of continuity to the two albums. Both explore a rather melodic yet edgy form of neoprog that borrows from the golden era of prog rock (Yes, Genesis) and reinterprets it in modern fashion, combining elongated song structures, complex arrangements and virtuous playing with rhythmic groove and melodic accessibility.

The music revolves around the band's prominent rhythmic section, with bassist Graeme Murray putting his Rickenbacker to particular good use in combination with Colin Fraser's effective drumming. Guitars and keyboards are used in a complementary way to tastefully supply melody and texture. This gives the music a solid, muscular feel that is peculiar to the band's sound. Pallas' other main distinctive characteristic is Alan Reed's histrionic yet smooth vocal delivery. His voice may be a bit of an acquired taste, but the singer certainly knows how to capture the listener's imagination. From quiet balladry to heavier sections, Reed adapts his delivery ' from sweet and melodious to intense and dramatic ' in a way that may draw parallels with Genesis' Peter Gabriel.

Despite their prog inclinations, several of the songs on the album are chorus-driven compositions, which may even appeal to listeners who do not normally revel in progressive extravaganza. The first part of the record is particularly effective. The title-track is an atmospheric piece that combines a strong chorus with an interesting instrumental detour, partly inspired by classical music (Mozart's Requiem). 'For the Greater Glory' is a Middle-Eastern-infused, fist-pumping epic about WWII, while 'Who's to Blame' is a simple and effective ballad featuring a beautiful fretless bass and excellent lyrics. The record loses a bit steam as it progresses into its second-half. The progressive inclinations of the band are brought more to the fore, but the quality of the melodies drops down a notch or two. This is particularly evident in the insipid, semi-acoustic ballad 'Generations' and in the two 'prog epics' ('Towers of Babble' and 'Midas Touch') that impress more for their instrumental twiddly bits than their cohesiveness as songs.

Overall, The Cross & the Crucible is a good album. It may not entertain from start to finish as it drags somewhat in the lacklustre second half, but it nevertheless reinforces Pallas' position as one of the most interesting bands in the neoprog arena. In fact, Pallas' sound may appeal even beyond the narrow group of neoprog aficionados and even metalheads and straight rock fans may find things to like here.