Album review – PALLAS – The Midas Touch Boxset (8CDs+DVD)

June 23rd, 2026 by brianmc

Cherry Red [Release date : 26.06.26]

Once upon a time there were two bands called Rainbow.
Ritchie Blackmore won the toss, and the other changed their name to Pallas. This was 1974.

Two years ago Cherry Red released a 6CDs and a DVD boxset covering Pallas’s recordings in the years 1981-86.

They’ve now gone two better with an 8CD and a DVD boxset covering the years 1996-2007.

CD1 : Beat The Drum (1999)
CD2 : Live Our Lives pt1 (2000)*
CD3 : Live Our Lives pt2*
CD4 : The Cross And The Crucible (2001)
CD5 : The Blinding Darkness pt1 (2003)*
CD6 : The Blinding Darkness pt2*
CD7 : The Dreams Of Men (2005)
CD8 : Moment To Moment (2008)*
CD9 : The Blinding Darkness + Moments To Moments DVD* (plus extras)

* indicates Live album/s

An almost impossible rock band to define, though the music media usually settled on Neo-prog, Scottish band Pallas followed a path that was unmistakably their own. It didn’t help that they hung up their boots in 1986 and didn’t put them back on again until 1999.

They lined up much as they had previously finished. Alan Reed (vocals), Graeme Murray (bass, guitar, vocals), Niall Matthewson (guitar), Ronnie Brown (keyboards) and Colin Fraser (drums).

Some websites criticised the band for the “13 year gap” between albums, which is kind of missing the point.

The music on Beat The Drum is more rock than prog, and is occasionally somewhere in between.

‘Call To Arms’ and ‘Man Of Principle’ encourage us to make comparisons with Saga’s attractive mix of melodic rock and prog.

The title track, ‘Beat The Drum’ is a song with a social conscience. Alan Reed’s vocal falls into the space between David Surkamp and Geddy Lee, where the air is rare and thin. It’s a perfect treatment.

The album is not as technically dazzling as the Band’s Phase 1 days, but it’s got depth and drama, and it’s several shades more user friendly.

The second phase of the band’s career was underway.

The content of Live Our Lives CD1 was recorded during the band’s European tour of 1999, then whittled down to 65 minutes, with overdubs added as appropriate. The sound sparkles.
The much shorter Atlantis Suite is on CD2.

The band were on a roll now. The expansive conceptual work, The Cross and The Crucible, was released the following year. In response to demand, it was toured throughout Europe a year later, resulting in The Blinding Darkness, parts 1 and 2.

What you hear in these last two albums, in studio and on stage, is significant growth in confidence and musicianship. Short form and long form tracks are beautifully composed and orchestrated. And arguably, ‘For The Greater Glory’ and ‘Blood And Roses’ show us that often, arrangement is more important than composition.

The emphasis on guitar and keyboard combinations means there is less of the experimentation that distinguishes the band’s earlier albums.

2005’s The Dreams Of Men studio album further cemented the band’s recalibrated sound.

Still, echoes from the past emerge in slow, stunning epics like ‘The Last Angel’ and ‘Ghostdancers’. There are enough moments here of thrilling drama to give anyone chills, whether they are fans of the band or not.

A few years later it was used as the basis for a gig in Katowice, supporting Caamora, a Polish band led by famous local singer Agnieska Swita (also featuring Clive Nolan). It was recorded in sound and vision, eventually being reshaped into the live album and video, Moment To Moment, recently remastered by the band’s keyboard player, Ronnie Brown.

It is now a key component of CD9, along with bonus tracks and DVD extras including entertaining interviews with Graeme Murray and Alan Reed.

The most impressive aspect of what is an endlessly impressive boxset is its convincing ability to make you go back to CD1 and start again.
The Midas Touch indeed.

*****

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 22 June 2026

DELANEY FAULDS – Beautiful Again (indie)
ANY GIVEN SIN Until We Disappear (Mascot Records)
JADE ELEPHANT Anymore (indie)
DIAMOND RAIN Naked City (Pride & Joy Music)
DAEDRIC Sand Tiger (FiXT)
PARKER BARROW Nothin’ Left To Save (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 22 June 2026

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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