LIVE IN POLAND - RESONANCE

Galahad has a long and rather uneven career that goes back to 1985. They certainly have several really great songs in their repertoire, but there sometimes seems to be a problem in the quality control department when it comes to putting together their studio albums. This very good live DVD, on the other hand, captures the band playing live in Poland where they perform a short but strong set featuring some of their best ever songs and no filler.

As many as five out of the eight songs are taken from the band's (at that point, yet to be released) Empires Never Last album. Songs like I Could Be God, This Life Could Be My Last and Empires Never Last were almost already Galahad classics before they were even released in studio form! The remaining three songs are simply the respective highlights from the three previous albums; Sleepers from Sleepers (my personal Galahad favourite), Bug Eye from Following Ghosts and (the first four sections of the multi-part, album-length composition) Year Zero. Eight songs in total does perhaps not sound like much, but all of these are quite long numbers.

Even if there is a overly heavy reliance on the Empires Never Last album, the set is still great and the band showcases their best side and perform with enthusiasm. With each song the band grows more accustomed to the stage and at the end of the show they seem very confident. Personally, I prefer the 2CD live album called Sleepless In Phoenixville - Live At RoSfest 2007 where the performances are slightly more energetic, a bit tighter and the set slightly longer and more diverse. That double live CD was recorded in America the year after this DVD was filmed and maybe that extra time on the road gave the band more confidence on stage with the new material and the audience more time to get to know the new songs. The RoSfest set also drops one of the Empires Never Last songs (Termination; one of my least favourite songs from that album) in favour of an extra song from the classic Sleepers album (my favourite Galahad studio album) as well as a song from the very earliest days of the band's career in the mid 80's. All these considerations makes the RoSfest CD set more interesting and in my opinion slightly better than this DVD. Still, you don't get the visual aspect of the performance if you go for the CD, so maybe you should go for both like I did!

If you don't know Galahad, a live release might be a good introduction to the band as it gathers together some of their best songs in one and the same place. I actually like this DVD more than the Empires Never Last studio album and this set features the five longest and best out of the seven tracks from that album. However, as I said, I myself prefer the Sleepless In Phoenixville live album even more. But Resonance is surely a very worthy addition to your Prog DVD collection!

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