THE WEDGE

Excellent album!!! I don't know the reason why this is so low rating! Maybe people hate the '80 era or the plastic keyboards...but here these are fantastic, i think Tony banks should learn how play the keys in the eighties from Ronnie Brown!

Pallas in this album try to be much mainstream oriented from the old one, in this album u can hear much pop and new wave elements, but despite this poppish mood, the prog rock is still presents in 2 long and epic tracks in Pallas style. Rat racing has a very strong energy, with a fantastic and fantasy intro...full of new age and orchestral keyboars riff that sounds very innovative for that period, after 2 minutes start a crescendo and the pulsing bass line...explode creating a funkadelic nuance and with symphonic and spacey keyboards; here alan reed sing with a teatrical manner...different from Peter Gabriel or other singer from the past, and all is very enjoable. This track continues with an intricate passage between guitar and keys, with several drum breaks and time signatures to end in a pompous and epic style. The 2 long track Sanctuary is a much reflexive track, with a melancholic and pop/soul feeling for the first 2 and half minutes, but after that the music become much interesting...with dark and tribal passages with the evocative style of Alan Reed, and after other 2 minutes the music change again to become electro/industrial...for 1 minutes full of xilophone and digital percussions, but soon start a guitar solo that drive the listener in another dimension, and this will the entrance for the final coda that end the epic track full of symphonic chorus, double layers guitar solos, cathy keyboards riff and other arrangements...that fade out slowly, fantastic!!!!!! Another good track is "Just a memory", that is a really touching ballad in the vein of synth pop and new wave style, with cathing melodies, with a nice guitar solo.

The other songs are good too, especially "immagination", that despite it's a bit poppish, it contains good keyboards ideas and boombastic chorus!

Recomend to fans of keyboards driven or neoprog fans, 4 stars!