Pallas- The Blinding Darkness

Pallas- The Blinding Darkness
Год выпуска: 2003
Жанр: Neo-Progressive
Продолжительность: 73 минуты

Musicians

- Alan Reed / vocals
- Niall Mathewson / guitars
- Ronnie Brown / keyboards
- Graeme Murray / bass
- Colin Prazer / drums

Set list

1. The Cross And The Crucible (9:05)
2. For The Greater Glory (7:44)
3. Who's To Blame? (4:48)
4. The Executioner / Rat Racing (11:05)
5. Crown Of Thorns (10:14)
6. Beat The Drum (8:59)
7. Blood And Roses (5:54)
8. The Blinding Darkness (6:14)
9. Towers Of Babble (9:38)
10. Midas Touch (9:54)
11. Celebration! (10:27)
12. Rise And Fall (Part 1) (6:10)
13. East West (5:02)
14. March On Atlantis (3:14)
15. Atlantis (8:06)
16. Cut And Run* (5:33)
17. The Ripper* (12:46)
DVD Extras:
1. The Ripper Returns
2. From The Centaurs Mouth
3. Gallery 1 Pre Show
4. Gallery 2 The Show

Releases information: InsideOut IOMDVD 003 (2003)
Качество: DVD9
Формат: DVD Video
Видео кодек: MPEG2
Аудио кодек: AC3; PCM
Видео: PAL 4:3 (720x576) VBR
Аудио: English (Dolby AC3, 6 ch); (LinearPCM, 2 ch)

DVD info

Title: PALLAS_DVD
Size: 6.84 Gb ( 7 168 502 KBytes ) - DVD-9
Enabled regions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
VTS_01 :
Play Length: 00:00:22
Video: PAL 4:3 (720x576) VBR
Audio:
Not specified (LinearPCM, 2 ch)
VTS_02 :
Play Length: 00:00:12
Video: PAL 4:3 (720x576) VBR
Audio:
Not specified (LinearPCM, 2 ch)
VTS_03 :
Play Length: 01:36:11
Video: PAL 4:3 (720x576) VBR
Audio:
Not specified (LinearPCM, 2 ch)
Not specified (Dolby AC3, 6 ch)
VTS_04 :
Play Length: 00:44:27
Video: PAL 4:3 (720x576) VBR
Audio:
Not specified (LinearPCM, 2 ch)
Not specified (Dolby AC3, 6 ch)
VTS_05 :
Play Length: 00:06:27
Video: PAL 4:3 (720x576) VBR
Audio:
Not specified (LinearPCM, 2 ch)
VTS_06 :
Play Length: 00:05:00
Video: PAL 4:3 (720x576) VBR
Audio:
Not specified (LinearPCM, 2 ch)
VTS_07 :
Play Length: 00:00:10
Video: PAL 4:3 (720x576) VBR
VTS_08 :
Play Length: 00:00:07
Video: PAL 4:3 (720x576) VBR

Скриншоты menu

Скриншоты

Описание

For the first time in their 20 years of existence Pallas have recorded a live video. After the somewhat ill-received Live Our Lives they decided that this time it had to be done right. And so we have here a live recording with an exceptional sound quality, superb performances, a killer setlist which spans the entire career of the band (although the emphasis lies on their last studio album The Cross and The Crucible and especially for the recording of this DVD original singer Euan Lowson had been called out of retirement for the final encores.
The gig was recorded in De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands on September 7th 2002. The band had opened up all the registers to make this DVD shoot a successful one, with a large lightshow (including weird flame-type light effects), extra banners and a backdrop (which had been hand-created on the spot!) and the aforementioned guest appearance of Lowson.
However, as is good prog tradition: everything that could have gone wrong went wrong during the recording: The show had to be stopped three times due to keyboard failures. Kudos to director/editor Joachim Weider that none of this shows on the footage.
A nice touch is that Graeme Murray's rant about the dangers of becoming too dependent on technology is left in, although it may seem a bit out of place if you don't know what happened during the show - however there is a hilarious bit during which Alan Reed fixes a hole in his shoe with some gaffer tape (don't ask, you just have to see this).
One of the first things to note when watching the DVD footage is the incredible sharp images. I always figured that the best concert venue in Holland was the 013 in Tilburg. And seeing IQ, Spock's Beard and Transatlantic doing their DVD shoots there seemed to confirm this. However, all three of these concert videos suffered from the same lack of sharp lighting on stage, resulting in very dark images.
It could have something to do with the film crew (aforementioned bands all used the same crew, Pallas a different one) or because of the fact that the Boerderij venue is a lot smaller and therefore easier to light, but the images are razor sharp and full of contrast.
Add to that crisp clear 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround tracks and you may well have the best live DVD of the year - and that coming from a relatively small band on a tight budget!
As said the setlist focuses on the Cross and the Crucible album though there is enough room for older tracks like Crown Of Thorns from their Arrive Alive album and of course their pinnacle, the 20-minute Atlantis Suite. Only The Wedge is a little under served with only a medley of The Executioner and Rat Racing.
What makes the DVD (and CD) really special is the one-off performance with original singer Euan Lowson back at the helm. The band warms him up with Cut and Run (off The Sentinel) before playing the one song that only Lowson can perform. For the first time in 18 years the band play the song which brought them their first media attention back in 1981: The Ripper. During this lurid performance Lowson wields a butcher's knife, sticks it in deep in his mouth, cuts himself (some of it is show, some of it for real) and finally acts as if cutting off his penis and throws blood, meat and who-knows-what-more into the audience. I guess this was one show where you wouldn't want to be in the front row...
It's a pity that the final encore, Arrive Alive, which had both Euan Lowson and Alan Reed sharing the vocals, has been left off the album. But in fact that is the only gripe I have about this album.
DVD extras include a nicely animated menu, two photo galleries (before and during the show) and two documentaries. These two short, very tongue-in-cheek docs alone are worth the price of the DVD. Great fun!
As with all live releases from Inside Out, the album is available as a double CD, a DVD, or a Limited Edition digipack which includes both DVD and CDs. Once again I can only recommend people to go for the Limited Edition. Not only does it look fantastic, the DVD also add a lot of extra value over just the CDs (and you can't play a DVD in your car after all, so you still need those).