Pallas - The Cross & the Crucible (2001)
Tracklist front / back album covers
Pallas - The Cross & the Crucible
"The Big Bang" – 3:08
"The Cross & the Crucible" – 9:17
"For the Greater Glory" – 7:37
"Who's to Blame?" – 4:45
"The Blinding Darkness" – 6:41
"Towers of Babble" – 8:11
"Generations" – 5:21
"Midas Touch" – 11:16
"Celebration!" – 7:24
Pallas Band Members / Musicians
Alan Reed – vocals, acoustic guitar
Niall Mathewson – acoustic & electric guitars, tambourine
Ronnie Brown – keyboards
Graeme Murray – electric & fretless basses, background vocals
Colin Fraser – drums, acoustic & electronic percussion
Gill Main, Claire Bleadsdale, Laura Sinclair, Trevor Gray, Alastair Taylor, Laura Harrow – background vocals
The Cross & the Crucible is the 5th studio album by the British neo-progressive band Pallas, released in 2001. The album was recorded in their own studio The Mill in Crathes, Aberdeenshire in the winter of 2000 to 2001. For the first time Pallas use guest musicians. The song The Cross And The Crucible is based on the Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The music of this album was, according to the reviewers, compared with Pallas' classic in the genre, The sentinel, especially in the pompous-sounding parts. The new logo of Pallas is also a return to The Sentinel. Patrick Woodroffe, creator of that album cover, designed it. The album tends to be a concept album about (the abuse of) science and faith. Quote from For The Greater Glory: "Dear Mom, I'm sorry, but God does not live here ..". The soldier is then in the trenches in Flanders or France, he did not remember.
