Palace In Thunderland - In The Afterglow Of Unity (2015) (Full Album)

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• published: 01 Sep 2016
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This on-again, off-again Boston band featuring former members of Black Pyramid and Blue Aside is back on with their latest album In The Afterglow Of Unity. the formidable foursome have regrouped to offer an album rich in tone, riffs and guitar pyrotechnics that has evolved into an aural assault of epic proportions. They bring a heady, eye of newt brew that’s lost somewhere between ’71 and ’99. Dark and driving like Swervedriver’s lost classic Raise, filled with riff-y and groovin’ shooting stars that skirt the space between Sabbath and Dozer, graciously tripped out on the kinda ludes that spawned everything from Hum to Hawkwind… Yeah, that's the best bird's eye view I can paint at a glance of the Palace's multifaceted aural glory. Bassist Adam Abrams leads in instrumental opener, “The Owl in Daylight” with a chunky, tightly tethered bass line that provides a sky sized canvas for dueling axe wielders Andy Beresky and Monte Newman to paint both ambient chords and clean riffs upon. Matt Netto gives the space station lifelines a suspenseful shake with atmospheric cymbal taps soon turning to a giant’s stomp of doom addled footsteps that leaves a three-toed imprint of Sabbathian sludge. The tune sets the tone for an album meant to be played without interruption. A retooled, revamped version of "Beyond the Stars" follows up the intro, a cut you might have heard if you were able to get an ear on the Stars, Dreams, Seas EP. With the new production job this song is a fuckin’ monster breathing fire, death and ashen, melodically intertwined harmony riffs. Andy’s voice is in top-form and Netto’s a backbreaking, immovable force; the weight of his hits rewriting the rules of gravity as his fills precisely accent every tempo twist. Adam’s bass is cozily nestled into the cockpit where Beresky and Newman engage in furious combat over the 6-string control panel. “Awakened Dream” is another returning traveler from the aforementioned EP and I’m seeing it in a whole new light. Part Badmotorfinger and part Call it Conspiracy, it has those wraparound riffs and crystalline tonalities of Kim Thayil and Tommi Holappa’s best work. Ignoring the shambling, doom-y note bends and harmonized Lizzy-isms is a futile task, and the washes of synth-y, cyclic guitar FX give the music a mescaline mindset heard on the early Swervedriver records. Riffs are driven like nails, the leads undulate like serpents in their infinite unfolding and the rhythm section fears no universal power… A darker, gothic undercurrent sweeps beneath the waters of “The Distant Shore.” It’s got that jangling, dwell by night creep of The Cure in their heyday with a little more punk rock octane and breaking waves of riffage that cleanses the soul from life’s damage done. If goth-rock had any balls nowadays, suckled on the breast of 90s space rock while still keeping a 70s hard rock sensibility it would sound like this. They keep the arrangement bouncing from hypnogogic power-drug riffs to dreamy psychedelia in a way few bands are capable of. They bust out the hypnotist’s watch on the sprawling, 9+ minute masterpiece “Before the Dawn Descends.” In terms of lyrics n’ vocals, there is a catchy minimalism present at all times making use of only a few metaphoric lines with the song’s title repeated like a mantra. The riffing is vast with extensive lead guitar workouts careening in the death throes of a level 6 psychedelic experience towards a stripped down clean groove that culminates in a firestorm of twin guitar heroics before trailing off into the autumnal drone, “The Absolute and the Relative.” Starting off as a rolling stoner riff thunder, “Soulstorm” lives up to its name and then some; the first half all about establishing an unchallengeable mid-tempo groove and then wrecking it into a freight train of Thin Lizzy gallop in its climactic endnotes. In the Afterglow of Unity is a masterpiece in a modern era of rock music much in need of masterpieces. The flow from song to song is seemless, a magnetized prog-rock sequence where each track bleeds into the next. There’s no weak link. These compositions are airtight and feature four men working and complimenting all of the strengths in their arsenal. The Palace is calling… I’ll meet you at its delirium gates. 1. The Owl In Daylight - 0:00 2. Beyond The Stars - 1:53 3. Awakened Dream - 7:34 4. The Distant Shore - 14:02 5. Troglodytes - 19:24 6. Deus Ex Machina - 25:13 7. Pink Quarter - 29:17 8. Decadent Decay - 31:07 9. Before The Dawn Descends - 36:09 10. The Absolute And The Relative - 45:11 11. Soulstorm - 46:09 12. The Sunfaced Moon - 52:50 Support Palace In Thunderland by purchasing the album here https://palaceinthunderland.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-afterglow-of-unity https://www.facebook.com/PalaceInThunderland/?fref=ts Check out Stoned Meadow Of Doom 2 for more excellent full albums! - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkqjcQwTNvsxQWT44N6ESrA