THE BLINDING DARKNESS

A superb live outing from Pallas. Could be marketed as Greatest Hits. Vol.1 (1 because it was prior to the great Dreams of Men album), because it contains all the essential songs plus more in a form not too far away from studio versions, but delivered with energy and a better, louder production. Pallas's songs typically alternate between more driving sections, quiet break-downs and Pink Floyd-influenced big celestial endings. That's a formula quite common to neo-prog, to be sure, but Pallas are distinct in the way that they sound very 80s oriented - sharp but kind of thin, even with traces of synth-pop - whereas most others opt for vintage 70s or the heavy and thick 2000s sound. On the minus side, they do too much of the 10-minute stuff here, unwarranted, because the 7-8 minute format is what I think is their top game.