I typically do a clean sweep of my review list at the end of each year, but I’ve loved Pallas for years and this album released in mid-December, so I still feel the need to say a few things about it. The album is called The Messenger, and it released on December 15th.
Pallas is one of the “second wave” of prog rock alongside bands like Marillion, Pendragon, IQ, Saga, and more. I’ve always liked Pallas, whether it’s their energetic debut The Sentinel in 1984, or perhaps their lengthy and beautiful 2005 record The Dreams of Men. They’ve always been a band that disappears for some time, only to remerge later. I discovered them in 2011 with their rebirth under the album XXV, which is still my favorite from them, and I adored 2014’s Wearewhoweare—I still want a vinyl copy of that one. Their compilation plus extras The Edge of Time in 2019 is also well worth your time and money. But here we are almost ten years since they released their last true studio album, and they’ve come back from the dead again.
This time around, they’ve brought back vocalist Alan Reed, who has been the lead singer two times in the past and is back for a third go. The rest of the band includes Niall Mathewson on guitars and programming, Graeme Murray on bass, Taurus bass pedals, and 12-string guitar, and Ronnie Brown on keyboards and programming.
Here’s the thing about Pallas. They seem to pop their heads out of their collective dens whenever they are feeling existential dread about the world. Most of their albums are similar lyrically, and The Messenger is no different. In fact, this album very much feels like The Sentinel or XXV, and is definitely more like the latter musically. Once again, there is some sort of threat to humanity, some sort of messenger or herald that is warning humanity of its doom. This one ends in biblical fashion, and you will hear callbacks to XXV especially in both the lyrics and music.
The Messenger is a rock-solid album, though. The drums are programmed but aren’t that noticeable. The real meat here is Alan’s vocal performance, the excellent guitar work, the terrific bass lines, and the haunting and spunky keys. That’s what this album has to offer the most, and fans of that type of prog rock should love this.
The album has six tracks. I’ll be honest and say that the album doesn’t hit its stride until track 3, though. I like “Sign of the Times”, an opener which serves as a foundation and contains an amazing guitar solo, and then “The Great Attractor”, which very much has the XXV feel and so does feel like a retread somewhat. Once we hit “Fever Pitch”, though, the album really launches into something wonderful.
“Fever Pitch” also feels very XXV to me, but I can’t help but love the cinematic keys, the sauntering gait, and the spacey vibes. I love it. “Heavy Air” comes next, and I love how reserved and atmospheric it is. The bass really shines on this track, and the whole band seems to be focusing on creating an electric ambience, and that builds up with searing synth and shadowy organs to the moment when Niall’s guitars come sweeping in, and I get goosebumps every time.
The last two songs are great, too. “The Nine” (the band loves numbers) is a rocking track with some great vocal harmonies and probably my favorite chorus overall. I really like how electronic it feels at times, but there’s no denying that the celestial keys are what really sell the second half. The title track closes the album with a 13-minute epic, and it’s a good one. The song does seem to have trouble finding its feet at first, but slowly it starts to come together, and the various piano portions really help with that. The last half is cosmic and biblical in scope, and again the harmonies are strong. The band finishes the album on an extremely high note with lots of cinema and foreboding story points, and I really connect with it.
Pallas are back and they are worried about the world again, and we are the better for it because we get a new album. The Messenger is quite similar to some of their older albums, but this one might have more spunk, and the performances are all fantastic. Fans of the band will adore this, and I think some new fans could start here and work backwards to experience this often overlooked band.
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The PROG Mind 