Galahad has a pretty big history in the music industry. They formed in 1985 just after the second wave of the Brit prog bands like Marillion, Pallas, Twelfth Night etc. Over the years the band has had numerous line-up changes but their newest album “Battle Scars” features 4 of the 5 members that were featured in their debut album in 1991 “Nothing is Written”.
So Galahad’s biggest asset is their ability to improve themselves with each album. They can easily combine the prog elements with the nice atmospheric almost aor-like melodies. Stuart Nicholson’s vocals are very dramatic and with the combination of the great orchestration the resulting sound is very modern and likeable from the first spin of the cd.
The album starts with the self-titled “Battle Scars” which has some atmospheric orchestrations in the beginning until the vocals take hold and after a while the rest of the band joins. It is really a great opener which grabs the listener and gives promising messages for the rest of the album. The next two songs that follow could have easily been a part of the first song, because there is a small to no silence gap between them and there are a lot of identical music patterns within the songs.
Generally, the album is 57 minutes long and it is filled with nice theatrical melodies great vocals and exceptionally easy going songs. The production as expected for a band with this experience is really good, which allows the music to shine and pass even the more complex parts with a more immediate and melodic way.
A great addition to these guys discography. They are trying a more dark and symphonic approach in their music and they definitely do it well. It is not their greatest album but surely they manage to put something new in their music and keep the interest of the listeners at a high standard.
P.S. Their bassist Neil Pepper had left the band for a period of time and returned in 2009. However he was diagnosed with cancer and he miraculously made it through the recording session. The very talented musician and family man died in September of 2011.
