Wednesday, January 6, 2016

GALAHAD: Solidarity - Live in Konin (2015)

  This must be one of the latest releases of 2015 if I'm not mistaken.
  I discovered Galahad a few years back with their fantastic album 'Empires Never Last', and I followed the band's studio releases. The next 2 albums 'Battle Scars' and 'Beyond the Realms of Euphoria' were good ones, but not so good as 'Empires Never Last'.
To be honest, I had no idea about this live album, which I discovered almost a week ago.
  The live recordings for this album were made in 2013, at the Polish theater 'Oscar' at Konin, while the band was touring in order to promote their 2 new albums at the time.
The whole package contains 2 audio cds and a dvd including the whole concert.
Here I'm going to write a few things concerning only the audio cds. 
  Galahad started their career in the mid '80's, and during the first decades their sound was heavily influenced from bands like Genesis and Marillion. But since the release of 'Empires Never Last' the band has taken a new direction,their sound became heavier, and lately it has been dominated by keyboards. These changes are even more obvious in this live cd.
  From the first song "Salvation I Overture" we almost have the feeling of being in a dance club dancing on a techno beat from the keyboard player Dean Baker. In the next song who is the suite, the singing begins with a faster tempo and the heavy sound. "Guardian Angel" has a melodic chorus with some clear Riverside passages, and "Empires Never Last" brings things down on the first part with some improvisation in the middle of the song. "This Life could be my Last" is a crowd's favorite, with his dramatic melody carried by the emotional vocals of Stuart Nicholson.
This live show could not exist without the old epic "Sleepers" who is still amazing on this live recording. 
  It is clear that the band wanted to sound modern with some techno effects, heavy guitars and trying to get away from the Neo-Prog tag and probably prefers to sound more like  "symphonic Rammstein"!
  Speaking for myself, I enjoyed these more powerful live versions, but I still prefer the studio ones in most occasions.
  In my opinion, it is a good live album in general and a "must" for Galahad's fans.
            My Rating: 3.00 out of 5.00 Stars.

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