Sonic Odyssey

There's sluggish, there's longwinded, there's slow, there's languid and unhurried. Then there's the speed at which Pallas seem to operate, which can best be described as glacial.
Prog's correspondent has just taken his life into his hands by voicing this theory to the veteran Scottish neo-proggers. Fortunately, they erupt with laughter before addressing the truth behind our statement.
"We take a long time to do anything," says a smiling Ronnie Brown, "and then quite often we'll go back and do them all over again.
I don't think we will ever do anything quickly.
We've turned messing around and going down alleys into an art form." "No, we're not the fastest-moving group of individuals," Alan Reed says, nodding in agreement. "But having said that, cutting the tracks was done quite quickly. Once I rejoined, that kick-started things a little." "By our standards this album has been quite quick," Graeme Murray continues. "Five years.
For us that's lightning speed." "The bottom line is that with Pallas, things take as long as they take," says Brown. "If we'd set ourselves a deadline of making it in five years, it could have been another five years." Apologies for labouring the point, but it's worth making: Pallas are reminded that the studio album we have met over Zoom to discuss, The Messenger, is just their eighth in their 48-year history, which dates all the way back to the mid-70s. The statement causes Murray to grasp his head in his hands theatrically, before retorting: "Aye, but let's be positive at least we're all still here. And I can assure people that the album is well worth the wait."
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1625747790/1706879462/articles/MQZ8WZVUp1707139647279/7868014373.jpg]
Vocalist Reed and keyboard-player Brown are in Aberdeen. Murray has also returned to his native Scotland after a lengthy period down south. Although the singer has been back in the line-up for just under two years, given the unseemly manner of his second exit from Pallas in 2010, which was accompanied by strong words from both sides of the divide, seeing them all together again feels slightly odd.
"I was bounced into doing this album..." Reed begins, by way of explanation.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1625747790/1706879462/articles/MQZ8WZVUp1707139647279/8188764171.jpg]
"We locked him in a cupboard - literally!" interjects Murray, grinning.
In fact it was Mike Stobbie, a keyboard player with two different spells in Pallas, who played matchmaker.
"I'd washed my hands of the band long ago," Reed says. "I went out for a drink with Mike, who filled me in on what was going on up there: they were working on an album. But of course I'd heard that tale many times before." "We're always working on an album," Murray adds.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1625747790/1706879462/articles/MQZ8WZVUp1707139647279/1681188018.jpg]
"Several pints into our drinks, Mike asked me: 'Why don't you rejoin Pallas?"" Reed recalls. "To which I replied: 'No, no, no.' There was a whole series of reasons why I wouldn't do that. It was when Mike said, 'What if the other guys had all changed?' that the idea became easier to consider. The next thing I knew, Mike had Graeme on his phone. Basically, I'd been set up. Latest album, The Messenger.
"I woke up the following morning and wondered, 'Did I just rejoin Pallas?"" the singer says, smiling. "A few days later I was due to be in Scotland.
"Nobody leaves this band," Brown deadpans. "Pallas is a family. No, I'm being serious. We could call upon Paul at any time.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1625747790/1706879462/articles/MQZ8WZVUp1707139647279/7183836148.jpg]
Right now Paul is not actively contributing, but there's no acrimony. Euan [Lowson, the band's original singer] is still involved behind the scenes. Mike Stobbie clearly is." Although 'issues' blew up when Reed last departed Pallas a few uncomfortable things were said about geography, with the singer being based down south causing them to doubt his commitment there was no awkwardness around his return.
"Once we'd decided that we were going to make an album, working together brought a real buzz of excitement," Murray insists.
"In fact we've just been watching some rushes of a video made by Mike Bentley [the man behind the scenes who makes Pallas tick] and we're all blown away. The visuals that accompany the music are truly incredible."
This latest burst of activity from Pallas can be traced back to a 2018 Facebook post from Murray in which the bassist cryptically stated that the band were "not dead but in a state of suspended animation", and closed with the prediction: "The patient may [yet] come back to life." "That's right," he confirms. "It was high time we got off our arses and did something." Mathewson living overseas was among the numerous hurdles that needed to be overcome.
"Making the album remotely was quite a challenge, no doubt about it," says Murray.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1625747790/1706879462/articles/MQZ8WZVUp1707139647279/pi4NN3d5X1707139798860.jpg]
"In theory it's easy, but in practice it's far better to have everybody in the room playing and making judgements. Ronnie has done a huge amount of work on this album." "I'll agree with that," says Reed. "I hadn't worked with Ronnie directly before as much as I did this time. Normally I do my vocals and they add stuff around it, but the way we worked this time was much, much more of a group effort than on previous albums. In many ways that has caused us all to get on a lot better."
There's no doubt that Pallas's teamwork has served to create an album rich in detail and full of intricacy - although, as Reed stated earlier, its mood is consistently dark and ominous. With songs about climate change, disinformation and the resurrection of the Cold War, lamenting (as the record's biography states) "the seeming inability of our leaders to do anything but pour fuel on the flames", The Messenger is about as far from easy listening as it's possible to get.
"The songs address various different subjects, including a lot of stuff ...