PALLAS – The Dreams Of Men

Cover	Release	Style
	October 24th, 2005	Progressive Rock
	Label
	InsideOut Music / SPV
	Website
	http://www.pallas.f2s.com/
	Contact
	-
	Playing Time	Cat. N°
	73’09”	IOMCD 230 / SPV 48552 or Special Edition: IOMSECD 230 / SPV 48550
	Review by	Rating
	Danny	9,5/10
nederlands	Review
It took Pallas 4 years to write and record an album to follow up their masterpiece “The Cross and the Crucible”. The question is, of course, have they done better? And the answer is yes, in my opinion. It’s never easy to write new material after an album of such a high quality, but the long wait has been worthwhile. The production is excellent. The voice of Alan was a bit hidden in a wall of sound on the last album but this time he’s clearly audible above everything. I know that some of you don’t like his voice, but I never had a problem with it and he sounds better than ever. And the rest of the musicians also stand out more than usual. Especially Ronny is doing a great job on these dreams. I dare say that he made the biggest change to the Pallas sound. Together with Niall, he’s producing a wonderful symphonic sound that many bands should be jealous of. His keyboard sounds often sound so real, as if a symphonic orchestra is playing with the band, but the credits only mention one fiddle, so I presume all the rest is coming out of his Korg Triton, Roland Fantom and Yamaha Motif. This album is the perfect blend of symphonic and progressive music, quiet and rocky parts and long epics and shorter tracks. Like every great progressive rock album it takes a while to get into, but the effort really pays off. “Too Close To The Sun” is one of the best neo prog tracks I heard in years and this can only be beaten by “The Last Angel”, the final track of the CD. Both tracks are filled with the best progsounds and melodies you can imagine. But I must also mention every other track because of the high quality of every moment of this album. “Bringer of Dreams” has a great ouverture that will work great for live performances. “Warriors” is a more rocky track, as we know so welll from this band. “Ghostdancers” opens very folky and is an anthem for the indians, with indian vocals at the end. The short instrumental jewel “Northern Star” is a soundscape on keyboards with some great quiet acoustical guitarplaying layered upon. “Messiah” is the most difficult track of the album and doesn’t really fit amongst the rest, but I have to admire the guts of this band to put such an experimental track on their record. The chorus has a bit of a Peter Gabriel feeling and rhythm. I wonder how we should look at the stage when he is singing: “Since I was a small boy, I’ve dreamed of this day, when all of you would look up to me this way”. ;-) The band shows its heavier side on “Mr Wolfe, followed by the four parts of “Invincible”, another great epic but not as good as the others I previously mentioned. The change in their sound creates some references to bands like Pendragon and Arena, with even some post-Waters Pink Floyd in “The Last Angel” but they kept enough of their own sound to call this a genuine Pallas album. Mike Bentley did a great job on the packaging and there’s also a limited edition with an extra CD full of remixes and outtakes. It’s great to see that a band like Pallas still grows after a career of more than 25 years, only a pity they don’t make more albums.
Musicians
Alan Reed: Lead Vocals Graeme Murray: Bass Niall Mathewson : Guitars Ronnie Brown: Keyboards Colin Fraser: Drums Guests: Pandy Arthur: Vocals on “The Last Angel” Paul Anderson: Fiddle on “Ghostdancers” and “Bringer of Dreams” The Stroppy Divas, Karan Raitt and Lisa Paterson: vocals on Messiah
Tracklist
The Bringer of Dreams (9’.49”) Warriors (7’.15”) Ghostdancers (7’31”) Too Close To The Sun (11’34”) Messiah (4’57”) Northern Star (4’04”) Mr Wolfe (5’48”) Invincible (10’45”) The Last Angel (11’29”)


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