Pallas return to action with free download album

Scottish prog rockers Pallas reappeared in a blaze of activity this weekend with the release of a free download album, Courage - And Other Songs Of War And Peace, which features a new title track from Graeme Murray, Ascension from Niall Matthewson's solo album Eclectic Electric, a special edit of the XXV Suite and various demos.

In a post on the official Pallas Facebook page, bassist Murray wrote, "With the name of the band being derived from the Greek goddess of both war and wisdom, it has always been fitting that much of the band’s music has involved themes of war. To mark the 100 year anniversary of the end of ‘The Great War’ Graeme has written Courage assisted by Niall on guitars."

The band had largely lain dormant since the release of 2014's Wearewhoweare, with a post in June from Murray alluding to the fact that the band had split up. More recently Murray has been posting about working on a new solo album.

Speaking to Prog this morning, Murray went on, "I have been working as a composer on library music, and have been composing orchestral tracks for an album of war music with the Armistice Centenary in mind. I then had an idea for a song, and wrote this song Courage. I got in touch with Mike Bentley who is our long time band and Tour manager. I sent Mike the track, he loved the idea, so we embarked on the project about four weeks ago. In the meantime Niall came home on a trip to Aberdeen on family business. I thereafter literally kidnapped Niall for a couple of days to do some guitars on the track and was recording. Sorry Niall!!

"The whole thing went down to the wire with us still recording and mixing nine hours before deadline, with video footage of Niall and I strutting our stuff. We then had the inevitable computer problems at the Mix stage which saw us complete the project with a few hours to spare! It turned out to be a crazy few days but we made the deadline and the video went live at 11 AM last Sunday morning. It will be featuring on my solo album, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to tidy the track up and re-mix it for the album."

You can download the seven track album free from the band's Bandcamp page. You can watch a video for Courage here. And keep up to date on Murray's solo plans at the official Pallas Facebook page.

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.