Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Pallas
Label: Inside Out Records
Release: 1981
Length: 73:10
Rating: 3.5/5
»Arrive Alive« is the title of probably the best-known Pallas song ever, and also of their live debut, which was at the same time their first released album full stop, since the studio debut »The Sentinel« didn’t come out until 1984. Released in 1981, »Arrive Alive« counts as one of the first releases in the history of the new wave of progressive rock, beating Marillion’s debut, a classic of that movement, by two years. It’s very rare for a band to kick off their career with a live album (Twelfth Night did something similar), but the Scottish neo prog devotees Pallas had been showing off exceptional musicianship since their formation in 1980, even though their start was hardly promising. After starting out as Rainbow, they had to rename themselves immediately once they found out a band with that name already existed, led by the legendary Ritchie Blackmore (ex-Deep Purple). By the time Pallas started playing clubs like the Marquee (the heart of the neo-prog revival back then), progressive rock was an incredibly unpopular genre, but that didn’t slow them down one bit in following their own musical vision.
»Arrive Alive« originally came out on a low-quality cassette and only appeared on LP in 1983, when the band had already signed to the prestigious EMI. The live recording, whose rather weak (self-)production is its main Achilles’ heel, opens with »Arrive Alive«, the first single and a beloved Pallas classic that established itself as their signature song from the very first gigs. No wonder this standard, which already shows how noticeably Pallas stood apart from their peers, mostly thanks to the rich helping of hard-rock guitar phrasing from Niall Mathewson, was later included on the conceptual masterpiece »The Sentinel«. Original singer Euan Lowson, who often slipped into characters from his own lyrics in the style of the legendary Peter Gabriel (ex-Genesis) and Fish (ex-Marillion), was undoubtedly the main star of this incarnation of the band with his charismatic vocal approach, and he played a huge part in drawing bigger crowds to their shows.
»5 to 4«, where Pallas show off their knack for melodramatic epics with conceptual depth, also comes off very well, especially considering the relatively modest (self-)production. »Queen of the Deep«, the next epic treat with a dramatic story and one of the highlights of this live album, shows a cunning blend of symphonic progressive rock and punchy guitar passages, while sprawling organ barrages recall the golden early-eighties days of a hugely unpopular genre. On »Flashpoint«, whose opening is distinguished by the thickened bass lines of bassist Graeme Murray, you can once again hear the band’s ear for hard-rock guitar escapades, while Lowson once more goes for a thoroughly theatrical vocal approach in the finest tradition of the giants of this kind of progressive-rock theatrics, like Peter Gabriel and Peter Hammill (Van Der Graaf Generator).
The peak of »Arrive Alive« is undoubtedly the nearly 15-minute epic »The Ripper«, which was so controversial in its way that the members of Pallas, because of the rather graphic stage depiction of a violent scene, were even threatened with a ban on playing live several times. Lowson, who acts out a scene of murder and rape, transforms here into the psychopathic ‘Ripper’, putting on a bizarre, blood-soaked costume that makes him look like an old man and a woman at the same time. None of it would have been so problematic if the memory of the victims of the infamous ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ hadn’t still been so fresh. The long Mellotron intro successfully builds tense drama and lays the groundwork for a chilling story about the exploits of a psychopathic killer, before intelligent guitar improvisations and dynamically paced drum transitions kick in. The central star of the whole epic, in which you can’t miss certain influences from the legendary Genesis, is of course Lowson, who gets so deep into his role that it’s downright astonishing what a master of melodramatic theatrics the original Pallas singer was. Some would probably add that he wasn’t the only one with this kind of vocal approach, since Fish, Peter Nichols (IQ) and Geoff Mann (Twelfth Night) also followed in the footsteps of Gabriel and Hammill, but at a time when neo prog was barely being born and there were no studio releases on the scene yet, his vocals were something special.
Keyboardist Ronnie Brown was equally at home on mini moog, Hammond organ and Mellotron as on more modern synthesizers, which you can hear nicely on »Crown of Thorns«, yet another interesting symphonic epic on which Pallas, in their very first steps, set numerous sonic standards for the development of the neo-prog movement. »Paris Is Burning«, another melodramatic treat featuring an elegant piano arrangement, wasn’t recorded live but originally came out as a single, and only showed up on »Arrive Alive« with the CD version. »The Hammer Falls«, where the strong influence of classic Genesis can be heard again, is likewise a thoroughly representative Pallas song that, with its epic atmosphere, will still thrill every fan of this often overlooked Scottish group today. »Stranger (on the Edge of Time)« shows that the band, despite some already quite mature achievements, were still finding their feet, as it’s a song with decent potential but no clear direction, neither head nor tail.
»Arrive Alive« is a long way from being a live classic. Even after the thorough CD remaster, it’s still held back by weak production, and the band were still maturing and hunting for a clear sonic direction. Still, its historical significance alone means every neo-prog devotee should own it. On top of that, most of the songs on »Arrive Alive« never got studio versions, which makes it all the more important for collectors of the Pallas legacy. It’s honestly sad that a band that created one of the best prog-rock albums of the eighties with »The Sentinel« is barely scraping by today, living mostly off the contributions of fanatical Polish followers who back anything that smells even slightly of neo prog.
Line-up
Euan Lowson – vocals
Niall Mathewson – guitar
Graeme Murray – bass guitar, bass pedals, backing vocals
Ronnie Brown – keyboards
Derek Forman – drums
Production
Pallas
Track list
1. Arrive Alive (4:17)
2. Five To Four (10:11)
3. Queen Of The Deep (11:27)
4. Flashpoint (7:01)
5. The Ripper (14:42)
6. Crown Of Thorns (9:25)
7. Paris Is Burning (5:12)
8. The Hammer Falls (5:20)
9. Stranger On The Edge Of Time (5:35)
