''The Sentinel'' is the debut album by British

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

band

Pallas Pallas may refer to: Astronomy * 2 Pallas asteroid ** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas * Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon Mythology * Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena * Pa ...

. Released in February 1984, it is a concept album with lyrics based upon Cold War themes, using a futuristic version of the tale of

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and '' Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that b ...

as a metaphor for a technologically advanced society brought to the brink of destruction. The cover artwork is by

Patrick Woodroffe Patrick James Woodroffe (27 October 1940 – 10 May 2014) was an English artist, etcher and drawer, specialised in fantasy science-fiction artwork, with images that bordered on the surreal. His achievements include several collaborations wi ...

Background and recording

Pallas had been actively touring for years before their debut album was recorded. A newly established association with Marillion, the popularity of heavy metal in the adolescent market, and a revival of interest in progressive rock led to the band being signed to

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

for a £500,000 advance. As a further indication that EMI were considering the possibility of a progressive rock revival,

Eddy Offord Eddy Offord (born 20 February 1943) is a retired English record producer and audio engineer who gained prominence in the 1970s for his work on albums by the progressive rock bands Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes. Life and career Offord studied phys ...

, known for his extensive work with Yes and

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar, producer) and Carl Palmer (drums, percus ...

, was brought on as producer. Much of the album's material first appeared in the Atlantis Suite, an epic

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

rock opera which was a cornerstone of live Pallas shows at the time. The band's original intent was that the album would present the entire piece as a concept album. The group recorded the entire suite at the time; however,

wanted the group to balance its progressive efforts with more commercial songs, namely "Eyes in the Night" (AKA "Arrive Alive"), "Cut and Run", and "Shock Treatment". As a result, only four of the seven songs from the Atlantis Suite were presented in the original version of the album, and not in Pallas's preferred running order. The excised songs were issued as B-sides and EP tracks. The album was re-released on CD in 1992, under the Centaur Records label, with bonus tracks and a different running order; the commercial tunes the band recorded at EMI's behest are put at the start of the running order as a "warm-up", whilst the remainder of the album consists of the Atlantis Suite in its entirety. The record was released again in 2004 under the Insideout label on a numbered, special edition CD with added content.

Reception

In a retrospective review for ''

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

'', Robert Taylor said Pallas's approach is derivative, and that the album's longer songs tend to be repetitious while the shorter songs are uninteresting standard rock tunes.

Track listing

All tracks written by Ronnie Brown, Derek Forman, Euan Lowson, Niall Mathewson, and Graeme Murray

Side 1

# "Eyes in the Night (Arrive Alive)" - 4:08 # "Cut and Run" - 5:02 # "Rise and Fall" - 10:16

Side 2

# "Shock Treatment" - 4:29 # "Ark of Infinity" - 7:05 # "Atlantis" - 8:00

1992 CD re-issue

# "Shock Treatment" - 4:29 # "Cut and Run" - 4:59 # "Arrive Alive" - 4:05 # "Rise and Fall (Part 1)" - 6:05 # "Eastwest" - 4:58 # "March on Atlantis" - 5:23 # "Rise and Fall (Part 2)" - 4:08 # "Heart Attack" - 7:59 # "Atlantis" - 7:59 # "Ark of Infinity" - 7:05 Total length 57:26

Band members

*Euan Lowson – lead and backing vocals *Niall Mathewson – lead guitar, backing vocals, synthesizer *Ronnie Brown – synthesizers, backing vocals, piano *Graeme Murray – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitars *Derek Forman – drums, percussion

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sentinel, The 1984 debut albums Pallas (band) albums Albums produced by Eddy Offord Harvest Records albums