Pallas’ newly-released album, A Song For Tomorrow, is likely to be their last. It comes three years after 2023’s The Messenger and arrives a year after singer Alan Reed revealed he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
“I’m one of those guys that says, ‘Never say never,’ because there are lots of things we’ve said in the past that we’d never do again – and we did,” keyboard player Ronnie Brown tells Prog.
“But this feels different. Towards the end of making it, Niall Mathewson [guitarist] and I felt like it was maybe as far as we could go with the band.”
If the Scottish prog veterans’ ninth album since forming in 1976 does prove to be their last, it’s a fine swansong. Largely written by Brown and Mathewson, the 10-track record shifts between shorter, punchier songs such as dramatic opener Reset and the knotty Rushing Headlong, to more traditional epics like the moody Avenue Of Broken Dreams and the stirring Inside Out, the latter pair sung by Mathewson and Brown respectively.
All four members, including bassist Graeme Murray, pitch in with lead and backing vocals, and it also features a guest appearance by singer Natasha O’Neil.
“It sounds like Pallas always have, but more modern,” says Reed, who recorded his vocals over four days at his home in Stirlingshire. “There are parts that are moody and atmospheric, there are parts that are much heavier, and there are parts that sit everywhere in between. It really repays repeated listens.”
Brown and Mathewson are also responsible for the album’s lyrics. “It doesn’t have an overall concept,” says Brown, “but if you listen to individual tracks, it’s all about technology, conflict, references to Biblical events.
“Niall sees quite a lot of it as being about the wrongs of the world – wars happening and the feeling that the human race is collapsing in on itself. For me, it’s more about people and their characteristics, what drives us, what gets us out of bed in the morning; it’s a journey through that.”
Sadly, a tour or even one-off shows in support of the album are off the table. Pallas’ most recent gig took place in 2015, and Reed formally announced the end of the band as a live act at the end of 2024, citing the cost of touring plus the fact that Mathewson now lives in Cambodia.
The singer’s health has also meant bringing the curtain down on his own live performances. He bowed out following a short solo tour in September with his other band, The Daughters Of Expediency.
“It’s going to be very difficult,” says Reed of his decision to step back from playing live. “I’ve done this since I was young – it’s hard to let go. But because of my situation I need to stop.”
Reed isn’t completely done with music; he has a solo album in the pipeline, duesoon. And Brown says there’s a possibility he’ll continue writing with Murray and Mathewson regardless.
“It is slightly emotional,” says the keyboardist of his band’s apparent end. “We’ve had such a long time together and done so much, and we have so many happy memories. But it certainly feels like we can move on and look at other things in our lives.”
A Song For Tomorrow is on sale now.
