THE WEDGE

I might be considered too conservative if I say that the best works of prog rock basically ended with 70s. Then in the 80s appeared so-called neo-prog whose best exponents were definitely MARILLION, even if they often sounded as a second-hand, recycled version of the Gabriel-era GENESIS. Now, what to say about this absolutely poor album by PALLAS? They obviously try to sound like MARILLION who tries to sound like GENESIS and in that attempt they delivered a rare instant of dull, boring, uninspired and unfocused piece of music. Instruments are mechanical, cold and heartless while the vocal is totally unexpressive. In my opinion this is not prog at all, but a bad example of pop/AOR sound which never comes close to the American developers of that genre, such as STYX. I was really tempted to give zero mark, but following the review guidelines, I am forced to find some good moments. OK, let us say that the closing track, "Just a Memory" (on LP issue) has some moments and the band are at least trying to develop a song structure. Also the cover design is not that bad. So, "The Wedge" should be absolutely avoided unless you are a neo-prog completionist, which I am definitely not!