Pallas - "Blinding Darkness" cd Review

Artist: Pallas

Title: Blinding Darkness cd

Produced by: Niall Mathewson & Les Patterson

Label/ Date: InsideOut Music/ 2003

InsideOut Music website

Tracks:

Disc One:

1. The Cross and the Crucible

2. For The Greater Glory

3. Who's To Blame?

4. The Executioner/Rat Racing

5. Crown of Thorns

6. Beat the Drum

7. Blood and Roses

8. The Blinding Darkness

9. Towers of Babble

Disc Two:

1. Midas Touch

2. Celebration!

3. Rise and fall (part 1)

4. East West

5. March on Atlantis

6. Atlantis

7. Cut And Run

8. The Ripper

The Review:

Pallas, one of the founding members of the British neo-prog movement of the 1980's put out a stunning career spanning collection in the form of a double live CD & DVD set as well as a special edition package containing both the cds & dvd. I have only received the CD, so I’ll focus on that of course.

The Blinding Darkness is well over 2 hours of very well done and adventurous music. Complex? Nah but good nonetheless. Pallas’ music is more rooted in AOR rock than anything but they add some progressive and symphonic elements to create some very memorable songs. Mostly overshadowed by their contemporaries, Marillion, IQ and Pendragon, Pallas is somewhat underrated and in most cases better.

As I said, they cover their entire career, giving long time and new fans a excellent cross section of Pallas’ music. They even, which to me is astounding, bring in their original singer for two closing songs. Highlights for my ears are the Atlantis Suite and The Ripper (the later featuring the original singer, Euan Lawson). But all the songs are strong and good. I’d recommend this to fan’s of more melodic based prog. In fact I’ll be purchasing the DVD soon, so I can watch what I’ve heard.

Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on January 13th, 2004

Reviewed Discography

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